Heavy-flavour production and correlations in pp collisions: precision tests of pQCD and hadronisation with ALICE
Heavy quarks (charm and beauty) are predominantly produced in hard partonic scatterings, making their cross sections in proton--proton (pp) collisions calculable in perturbative quantum chromodynamics (pQCD) and thus providing stringent tests of pQCD. Furthermore, the associated production of two charm hadrons in a single collision offers a sensitive probe of multiparton interaction dynamics, distinguishing between single parton scattering (SPS) and double parton scattering (DPS) processes. In this contribution, preliminary measurements of prompt D-meson production are reported, together with the final results of the $\rm B^{0}$-meson production cross section down to $p_{\rm T}$ = 1 GeV/$c$ at midrapidity. The rapidity dependence of B-meson production is investigated by computing the ratio with respect to LHCb measurements at forward rapidity. The associated production of $\rm D^{0}$--$\mathrm{J}/\psi$ pairs in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13.6$ TeV is presented as well, where $\rm D^{0}$ mesons are reconstructed at midrapidity, while $\mathrm{J}/\psi$ candidates are measured at forward rapidity. These measurements are compared with pQCD calculations and phenomenological models, providing crucial constraints on heavy-quark production, hadronisation, and multiparton interaction dynamics.