Photoproduction of h_c

Abstract

Using the NRQCD factorization formalism, we calculate the total cross section for the photoproduction of h_c mesons. We include color-octet and color-singlet mechanisms as well as next-to-leading order perturbative QCD corrections. The theoretical prediction depends on two nonperturbative matrix elements that are not well determined from existing data on charmonium production. For reasonable values of these matrix elements, the cross section is large enough that the h_c may be observable at the E831 experiment and at the HERA experiments.

Comments: Revtex file 8 pages, 1 figure. Macros needed: epsf,floats,rotate Minor typos changed, and reference added. Version to be published in Phys.Rev.D