Cross Sections for B-Meson Hadroproduction and Up-to-Date Models.

The cross sections for B-meson production as obtained on the basis of the PYTHIA code and the Quark-Gluon String Model (QGSM) are compared at energies of the proton colliders SPS, Tevatron, and LHC. Model predictions are based on the idea of exchanges of a supercritical Pomeron with phenomenological intercept Δ[sub P](0) = 0.3 for heavy-quark production. The transverse-momentum spectra of B mesons are also compared. It is shown that the cross sections calculated with PYTHIA using CTEQ structure functions are at odds with the asymptotic estimate of the cross sections for B&Bmacr; production within the QGSM. Asymmetries between the spectra of B[sup 0] and &Bmacr;[sup 0] mesons also contradict the PYTHIA result. The reasons for the difference are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]