On the Determination of the Gluon Density of the Proton from Heavy-Flavour Production at HERA

Abstract

Using a recent next-to-leading-order calculation of the photoproduction double differential cross section for heavy quarks, we study the possibility of extracting the gluon density of the proton from heavy-quark photoproduction data. We discuss the theoretical uncertainties connected with this method, and we conclude that they are well under control in a wide $x$ domain.

Comments: CERN-TH.6864/93, GeF-TH-12/93. Latex, 5 topdrawer figures appended at the end