Radiation of Light Fermions in Heavy Fermion Production

The rate for the production of a pair of massive fermions in $e^+ e^-$ annihilation plus real or virtual radiation of a pair of massless fermions is calculated analytically. The contributions for real and virtual radiation are displayed separately. The asymptotic behaviour close to threshold and for high energies is given in a compact form. These approximations provide arguments for the appropriate choice of the scale in the ${\cal O}(\alpha)$ result, such that no large logarithms remain in the final answer.