Final state interactions in single- and multi-particle inclusive cross sections for hadronic collisions

Abstract

We study the role of low momentum transfer (soft) interactions between high-transverse momentum heavy particles and beam remnants (spectators) in hadronic collisions. Such final-state interactions are power suppressed for single-particle inclusive cross sections whenever that particle is accompanied by a recoiling high-p_T partner whose momentum is not fixed. An example is the single-top inclusive cross section in top pair production. Final-state soft interactions in multi-particle inclusive cross sections, including transverse momentum distributions, however, produce leading power corrections in the absence of hard recoiling radiation. Nonperturbative corrections due to scattering from spectators are generically suppressed by powers of \Lambda/p'_T, where \Lambda is a hadronic scale, and p'_T is the largest transverse momentum of radiation recoiling against the particles whose momenta are observed.