  Results are reported of a search for a deviation in the jet production cross
section from the prediction of perturbative quantum chromodynamics at
next-to-leading order. The search is conducted using a 7 TeV proton-proton data
sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 inverse femtobarns,
collected with the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at the Large Hadron Collider.
A deviation could arise from interactions characterized by a mass scale Lambda
too high to be probed directly at the LHC. Such phenomena can be modeled as
contact interactions. No evidence of a deviation is found. Using the CLs
criterion, lower limits are set on Lambda of 9.9 TeV and 14.3 TeV at 95%
confidence level for models with destructive and constructive interference,
respectively. Limits obtained with a Bayesian method are also reported.
