The structure of large logarithmic corrections at small transverse momentum in hadronic collisions

We consider the region of small transverse momenta in the production of high-mass systems in hadronic collisions. By using the current knowledge on the infrared behaviour of tree-level and one-loop QCD amplitudes at O(alpha (2)(S)), we analytically compute the general form of the logarithmically-enhanced contributions up to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. By comparing the results with q(T)-resummation formulae we extract the coefficients that control the resummation of the large logarithmic contributions for both quark and gluon channels. Our results show that within the conventional resummation formalism the Sudakov form factor is actually process-dependent. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.