Finite-mass effects on inclusiveB-meson hadroproduction

We calculate the transverse-momentum ($p_T$) distribution for the inclusive hadroproduction of $B$ mesons at intermediate values of $p_T$ at next-to-leading order (NLO) in a dedicated finite-mass scheme using realistic nonperturbative fragmentation functions that are obtained through a global fit to $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ data from CERN LEP1 and SLAC SLC exploiting their universality and scaling violations. We find that finite-mass effects moderately enhance the cross section, by about 20% at $p_T=2m_b$, and rapidly fade out with increasing value of $p_T$, so that the zero-mass prediction is reached. We also perform comparisons with recent $p\overline{p}$ data taken by the CDF Collaboration in run II at the Fermilab Tevatron and comment on the usefulness of the fixed-flavor-number scheme.