Two lectures on heavy quark production in hadronic collisions

Abstract

These lectures present a pedagogical introduction to the physics of heavy-flavour production in hadronic collisions. The first lecture gives the theoretical background, with a discussion of leading-order calculations and of the effects of next-to-leading-order corrections. The origin and implications of the large logarithmic corrections appearing at this order are presented in an elementary way. The second lecture provides a survey of current experimental data on charm and bottom production, and describes their comparison with theoretical predictions. We emphasize the role played by some non-perturbative effects in the determination of charm distributions, and study the theoretical systematic uncertainties which affect our predictions.

39 pages, Latex, epsfig, 36 figures. Presented at the International School of Physics `E. Fermi', Course CXXXVII, Heavy flavour physics: a probe of Nature's grand design