Low-energy supersymmetry and the tevatron bottom-quark cross section

A long-standing discrepancy between the bottom-quark production cross secti on and predictions of perturbative quantum chromodynamics is addressed. We show that pair production of light gluinos, of mass 12 to 16 GeV. with two- body decays into bottom quarks and light bottom squarks. yields a bottom-qu ark production rate in agreement with hadron collider data. We examine cons traints on this scenario from low-energy data and make predictions that may be tested at the next run of the Fermilab Tevatron collider.