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 ${\mathrm{B}}^0$-meson production cross section down to $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ = 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 ${\mathrm{D}}^0$–$\mathrm{J}\mathrm{/}\psi$ pairs in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13.6$ TeV is presented as well, where ${\mathrm{D}}^0$ mesons are reconstructed at midrapidity, while $\mathrm{J}\mathrm{/}\psi$ 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.