Sudakov Resummation and Finite Order Expansions of Heavy Quark Hadroproduction Cross Sections

Abstract

We resum Sudakov threshold enhancements in heavy quark hadroproduction for single-heavy quark inclusive and pair-inclusive kinematics. We expand these resummed results and derive analytical finite-order cross sections through next-to-next-to-leading order. This involves the construction of next-to-leading order matching conditions in color space. For the scale dependent terms we derive exact results using renormalization group methods. We study the effects of scale variations, scheme and kinematics choice on the partonic and hadronic cross sections, and provide estimates for top and bottom quark production cross sections.