Heavy flavour contributions to massive lepton pair production

Abstract

Massive lepton pair production in hadronic collisions, A + B → μ + μ − X, is usually assumed to proceed via ann intermediate virtual photon, ψ ∗ → μ + μ − , the Drell-Yan process. We examine other contributions arising from heavy flavour production, A + B → Q QX ; Q → μν X . We find that this background is comporable to the Drell-Yan signal at small values of M μ μ 2/s but negligible at large values. Characteristic siggnatures are described that distinguish the background from the signal.