Finite-mass effects on inclusive B-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 (p ) over bar data taken by the CDF Collaboration in run II at the Fermilab Tevatron and comment on the usefulness of the fixed-flavor-number scheme.