The saga of bottom production in proton-antiproton collisions

I review here the history of bottom quark cross section measurements and theoretical predictions. Starting form the early days of UA1, and going through the sequence of the large excesses reported during run 0 and I at the Tevatron by CDF and D0, I summarize how both data and theory have evolved in time, thanks to improved experimental techniques, more data, and improved control over the main ingredients of the theoretical calculations. I conclude with the discussion of the preliminary data from run II, which appear to finally give a satisfactory picture of the data vs theory comparison.Comment: 14 pages, Presented at the 2004 Hadron Collider Physics Workshop, East Lansing, MI, June 200

Phenomenology of Quarkonium Production in Hadronic Collisions

We review recent progress made in the theory of quarkonium production in hadronic collisions.Comment: 15 pages, Latex, 6 PS figures included via psfig. To appear in the Proceedings of the Xth Topical Workshop on Proton--Antiproton Collider Physics, Batavia, IL, USA, May 199

Observables for possible QGP signatures in central pp collisions

Proton-proton (pp) data show collective effects, such as long-range azimuthal correlations and strangeness enhancement, which are similar to phenomenology observed in heavy ion collisions. Using simulations with and without explicit existing models of collective effects, we explore new ways to probe pp collisions at high multiplicity, in order to suggest measurements that could help identify the similarities and differences between large- and small-scale collective effects. In particular, we focus on the properties of jets produced in ultra-central pp collisions in association with a Z boson. We consider observables such as jet energy loss and jet shapes, which could point to the possible existence of an underlying quark-gluon plasma, or other new dynamical effects related to the presence of large hadronic densities.Comment: 32 pages, 20 figure

Comments on claimed risk from metastable black holes

In a recent note, arXiv:0808.1415, it was argued that a hypothetical metastable black hole scenario could pose collider risk not excluded by our previous study. We comment on inconsistency of this proposed scenario.Comment: 3 pages; comment on arXiv:0808.141

Understanding the Standard Model, as a bridge to the discovery of new phenomena at the LHC

I discuss the basic elements of the process that will lead to the discovery of possible new phenomena at the LHC. We review the status of the tools available to model the Standard Model backgrounds, and the role that such tools can play in the discovery phase, and in the exploration of the features and parameters of such new phenomena.Comment: Contribution to ``Perspectives on the LHC'', G. Kane and A. Pierce, editor

Introduction to QCD in hadronic collisions

I review in this series of lectures the basics of perturbative quantum chromodynamics and some simple applications to the physics of high-energy hadronic collisions

Hard scattering in high-energy QCD

I review the recent results in the field of QCD at high energy presented to this Conference. In particular, I will concentrate on measurements of \as from studies of event structures and jet rates, jet production in hadronic collisions, and heavy quark production

Two lectures on heavy quark production in hadronic collisions

These lectures present a pedagogical introduction to the physics of heavy-flavour production in hadronic collisions. The first lecture gives the theoretical background, with a discussion of leading-order calculations and of the effects of next-to-leading-order corrections. The origin and implications of the large logarithmic corrections appearing at this order are presented in an elementary way. The second lecture provides a survey of current experimental data on charm and bottom production, and describes their comparison with theoretical predictions. We emphasize the role played by some non-perturbative effects in the determination of charm distributions, and study the theoretical systematic uncertainties which affect our predictions

B physics at CDF: results and prospects

Abstract In this presentation we review the latest B physics results from the CDF Collaboration at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We cover recently completed