HEAVY QUARK PHOTOPRODUCTION IN THE SEMIHARD APPROACH AT HERA AND BEYOND

Abstract

Processes of heavy quark photoproduction at HERA energies and beyond are investigated using the semihard ($k_{\perp }$ factorization) approach. Virtuality and longitudinal polarization of gluons in the photon - gluon subprocess as well as the saturation effects in the gluon distribution function at small $x$ have been taken into account. The total cross sections, rapidity and $p_{\perp }$ distributions of the charm and beauty quark photoproduction have been calculated. The results are compared with ZEUS experimental data for charm photoproduction cross section.

Comments: LaTeX, 10 pages, 6 figs not included (available via mail on request)