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Production of bb(bar) at forward rapidity in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=510  GeV

The cross section of bottom quark-antiquark (bb¯) production in p+p collisions at s√=510 GeV is measured with the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The results are based on the yield of high mass, like-sign muon pairs measured within the PHENIX muon arm acceptance (1.2<|y|<2.2). The bb¯ signal is extracted from like-sign dimuons by utilizing the unique properties of neutral B meson oscillation. We report a differential cross section of dσbb¯→μ±μ±/dy=0.16±0.01 (stat)±0.02 (syst)±0.02 (global) nb for like-sign muons in the rapidity and pT ranges 1.2<|y|<2.2 and pT>1 GeV/c, and dimuon mass of 5--10 GeV/c2. The extrapolated total cross section at this energy for bb¯ production is 13.1±0.6 (stat)±1.5 (syst)±2.7 (global) μb. The total cross section is compared to a perturbative quantum chromodynamics calculation and is consistent within uncertainties. The azimuthal opening angle between muon pairs from bb¯ decays and their pT distributions are compared to distributions generated using {;\sc ps pythia 6};, which includes next-to-leading order processes. The azimuthal correlations and pair pT distribution are not very well described by {;\sc pythia}; calculations, but are still consistent within uncertainties. Flavor creation and flavor excitation subprocesses are favored over gluon splitting.

beauty, bb(bar), forward rapidity, p+p, 510 GeV, PHENIX, RHIC

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