The Color-Octet Contributions to $P$-wave $B_c$ Meson Hadroproduction

Abstract

The contributions from the color-octet components $|(c\bar b)_{\bf 8}(^{1}S_{0}) g>$ and $|(c\bar b)_{\bf 8}(^{3}S_{1}) g>$ to the $h_{B_c}$ or $\chi_{B_c}^J$ (the $P$-wave $B_c$ meson) hadroproduction are estimated in terms of the complete ${\cal O}(\alpha_s^4)$ calculation. As necessary inputs in the estimate, we take the values of the octet matrix elements according to the NRQCD scaling rules, and as a result, we have found that the contributions to the $P$-wave production may be the same in order of magnitude as those from the color-singlet ones, $|(c\bar b)_{\bf 1}(^{1}P_{1})>$ and $|(c\bar b)_{\bf 1}(^{3}P_{J})>$ ($J=1,2,3$). Especially, our result indicates that the observation of the color-octet contributions to the $P$-wave production in the low transverse momentum region is not very far from the present experimental capability at Tevatron and LHC.