Implications of bottom-quark cross section data at hadron collider energies

In next-to-leading-order O(${\mathrm{\alpha }}_{\mathit{s}}^3$) quantum chromodynamics, gluon-gluon interactions are the dominant mechanism for the production of bottom quarks at CERN and Fermilab hadron collider energies at values of momentum transfer currently accessible. There is a notable discrepancy between the data from the Collider Detector at Fermilab and existing O(${\mathrm{\alpha }}_{\mathit{s}}^3$) theoretical calculations. Using these data, in conjunction with data from deep-inelastic lepton scattering, we show that it is possible to determine a new gluon density whose shape differs substantially from that derived from previous fits to data. Other implications of the data are discussed.