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

Abstract The order αs3 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 αs3 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.