Single-top-quark production via<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>W</mml:mi></mml:math>-gluon fusion at next-to-leading order

Abstract

Single-top-quark production via $W$-gluon fusion at hadron colliders provides an opportunity to directly probe the charged-current interaction of the top quark. We calculate the next-to-leading-order corrections to this process at the Fermilab Tevatron, the CERN Large Hadron Collider, and DESY HERA. Using a $b$-quark distribution function to sum collinear logarithms, we show that there are two independent corrections, of order $1/\mathrm{ln}{(m}_{t}^{2}{/m}_{b}^{2})$ and ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{s}.$ This observation is generic to processes involving a perturbatively derived heavy-quark distribution function at an energy scale large compared with the heavy-quark mass.