We discuss the production of photon-pion and pion pairs with a large
invariant mass at collider energies. We present a study based on a perturbative
QCD calculation at full next-to-leading order accuracy, implemented in the
computer programme DIPHOX. We give estimations for various observables, which
concern the reducible background to the Higgs boson search in the channel H -->
gamma gamma, in the mass range 80-140 GeV at the LHC. We critically discuss the
reliability of these estimates due to our imperfect knowledge of fragmentation
functions at high z and a subtle interplay between higher order corrections and
realistic experimental cuts. We conclude that, whereas the invariant mass
spectrum of photon-pion pairs is theoretically better under control, in the
dipion case large uncertainties remain.Comment: 26 pages Latex, 14 eps figures, replaced by published versio
