Finite-Mass Effects on Inclusive B-Meson Hadroproduction

We calculate the transverse-momentum (p_T) distribution for the inclusive hadroproduction of B mesons at intermediate values of p_T at next-to-leading order (NLO) in a dedicated finite-mass scheme using realistic non-perturbative fragmentation functions that are obtained through a global fit to e^+e^- data from CERN LEP1 and SLAC SLC exploiting their universality and scaling violations. We find that finite-mass effects moderately enhance the cross section, by about 20% at p_T = 2 m_b, and rapidly fade out with increasing value of p_T, so that the zero-mass prediction is reached. We also perform comparisons with recent ppbar data taken by the CDF Collaboration in run II at the Fermilab Tevatron and comment on the usefulness of the fixed-flavor-number scheme.