Corrections to quantum-chromodynamic Born terms. II. Transverse-momentum distribution of dileptons

Abstract

Quantum-chromodynamic corrections to the transverse-momentum distribution of dileptons are determined. For $p+p\to l^{+}{l}^{-}+X$ the dominant Born term is known to be provided by the subprocess $q+g\to q+{\gamma }^{*}$; the corrections are due to $q+q\to q+q+{\gamma }^{*}$. At large transverse momenta these corrections are found to be significant, and improve agreement with experiment. As a by-product, factorization of mass singularities and the implementation of scale violations in the gluon distribution are explicitly shown.