Heavy-hadron production based on kt-factorization with scale-dependent fragmentation functions

Abstract

We present a comprehensive study of heavy-hadron production, including D and B mesons, heavy baryons, and the B_c meson. Our calculations are based on the k_t-factorization and scale-dependent fragmentation functions, completing the program of implementing this formalism within a variable-flavor-number scheme, as initiated in ref. [1]. Special emphasis is placed on the gluon-to-heavy-hadron contribution, which improves the description of data at small transverse momenta. Finally, we explore and compare different factorization schemes. We achieve the non-trivial task of providing a reasonable description of all the data considered in this study with a factorization scheme fixed once and for all.