Simple formulae for the order αs3 QCD corrections to the reaction p + p → Q + Q + X

Abstract The order α s 3 QCD corrections to the parton-parton cross sections contributing to heavy flavour production in hadron-hadron collisions are discussed. We construct simple formulae which should yield reasonable approximations to the exact order α s 3 results. Then we examine the differences between the predictions of the exact and approximate formulae in the case of the reaction p + p → Q + Q + X where Q is either the b or the t quark.