IMPLICATIONS OF BOTTOM-QUARK CROSS-SECTION DATA AT HADRON COLLIDER ENERGIES

In next-to-leading-order [O(alpha(s)3)] quantum chromodynamics, gluon-gluon interactions are the dominant mechanism for the production of bottom quarks at CERN and Fermilab hadron collider energies at values Of momentum transfer currently accessible. There is a notable discrepancy between th, data from the Collider Detector at Fermilab and existing O(alpha(s)3) theoretical calculations. Using these data, in conjunction with data from deep-inelastic lepton scattering, we show that it is possible to determine a new gluon density whose shape differs substantially from that derived from previous fits to data. Other implications of the data are discussed.