Production and hadronization of heavy quarks

Heavy long-lived quarks, i.e. charm and bottom, are frequently studied both as tests of QCD and as probes for other physics aspects within and beyond the standard model. The long lifetime implies that charm and bottom hadrons are formed and observed. This hadronization process cannot be studied in i solation, but depends on the production environment. Within the framework o f the string model, a major effect is the drag from the other end of the st ring that the c/b quark belongs to. In extreme cases, a small-mass string c an collapse to a single hadron, thereby giving a non-universal flavor compo sition to the produced hadrons. We here develop and present a detailed mode l for the charm/bottom hadronization process, involving the various aspects of string fragmentation and collapse, and put it in the context of several heavy-flavor production sources. Applications are presented from fixed-tar get to LHC energies.