Heavy flavor production at large transverse momentum through the boson-gluon fusion mechanism

We present alternative calculations of the matrix elements for the process of heavy flavor production through the γWZ-gluon fusion mechanisms in hard hadronic interactions. The expressions for the matrix elements squared have been implemented in the EUROJET Monte Carlo event generator providing a flexible tool to study event distributions for both partonic and hadronic final states. In case of a charged mediator, we find complete agreement between our O(α²αₛ) calculations and recent calculations by Zerwas et al. Results on the factorization of the O(α²αₛ) matrix elements, which allows an independent treatment of O(α²) and O(α²αₛ) contributions to cross sections, are presented as well. We have performed an analysis of the main heavy flavor sources in hadronic interactions and have studied their relative importance as a function of accelerator energies. Heavy flavor masses have been varied over a wide range of possible values. The pure QCD contributions dominate for only part of the parameter combinations, while the distinct event topology arising in boson-gluon fusion processes enhances the observability of heavy flavors. We briefly discuss implications of the fusion mechanisms for production of heavy E₆ fermions.