QCD corrections to heavy-quark production inpp¯collisions

Abstract

We investigate QCD corrections to the cross section and differential distributions for $p+\overline{p}\to Q+\overline{Q}+X$, where $Q$ and $\overline{Q}$ are heavy quarks. We calculate the order-${\alpha }_s$ corrections to the parton reaction $g+g\to Q+\overline{Q}$. At the quark level this involves the computation of the virtualgluon contributions to the reactions $g+g\to Q+\overline{Q}$, and the soft and hard contributions from the reaction $g+g\to Q+\overline{Q}+g$. Results are given for the cross section and differential distributions for the range of $p\overline{p}$ collision energies available at CERN and Fermilab. A comparison is made with the recent data from the UA1 Collaboration.