ASPECTS OF CHI AND PSI-PRODUCTION IN POLARIZED PROTON-PROTON COLLISIONS

Several topics of relevance to low transverse momentum psi and chi1,2( ccBAR) production in polarized proton-proton collisions are discussed. The leading O(alpha(S)3) contributions to the low p(T) chi1 productio n cross-sections via gg, qg, and qqBAR initial states are calculated a s well as the corresponding spin-spin asymmetries. We find that chi1 p roduction increases relative to direct psi and chi2 production, provid ing up to 25% of the observable e+e- pairs arising from psi decays in pp collisions at square-root s = 500 GeV. The spin-dependence of chi1 production, however, is much smaller than for either direct psi or chi 2 production and so will likely be far less useful than either process in probing the polarized gluon structure function of the proton. A su bset of the O(alpha(S)3) radiative corrections to chi2 production invo lving initial state quarks are also performed and compared to leading order gg --> chi2 predictions.