Transverse Momentum Distributions for Heavy Quark Pairs

Abstract

We study the transverse momentum distribution for a $pair$ of heavy quarks produced in hadron-hadron interactions. Predictions for the large transverse momentum region are based on exact order $α_s^3$ QCD perturbation theory. For the small transverse momentum region, we use techniques for all orders resummation of leading logarithmic contributions associated with initial state soft gluon radiation. The combination provides the transverse momentum distribution of heavy quark pairs for all transverse momenta. Explicit results are presented for $b\bar b$ pair production at the Fermilab Tevatron collider and for $c\bar c$ pair production at fixed target energies.