PRODUCTION OF $B_c$ MESONS IN HADRONIC COLLISIONS

TL;DR

The paper addresses the hadroproduction of $B_c$ mesons in high-energy hadron collisions using perturbative QCD and nonrelativistic bound-state methods. It presents two independent calculations of the dominant subprocess $gg \rightarrow B_c^{(*)} b \bar{c}$ and investigates the validity of heavy-quark fragmentation via the fragmentation function $D_{\bar{b}}(z)$. The results show that $B_c^*$ is produced about three times more than $B_c$, and the fragmentation description matches the full calculation well for $p_T \ge 10$ GeV, while deviations occur at lower $p_T$ due to finite-mass effects. The findings provide robust predictions for cross sections and distributions at Tevatron and LHC energies and clarify discrepancies in prior literature, with implications for observing $B_c$ via decays such as $B_c \to J/\psi X$.

Abstract

We investigate hadroproduction of $B_c$ mesons from initial gluons using QCD perturbation theory and nonrelativistic bound state approximations. Our results obtained by two completely independent calculations are confronted with existing results which contradict each other. Moreover, we examine the approximation based on heavy quark fragmentation and determine the range of validity of it. Predictions for cross sections and differential distributions at Tevatron and LHC energies are presented.