Cross sections for charm production in ep collisions: massive versus massless scheme

Abstract

The next-to-leading order inclusive cross section for large- p ⊥ photoproduction of charm quarks at HERA is calculated in two different approaches. In the first approach the charm quarks are treated as massive objects which are strictly external to the proton and the photon while in the second approach the charm mass is neglected and the c quark is assumed to be one of the active flavours in the proton and photon structure functions. We present single-inclusive distributions in transverse momentum and rapidity including direct and resolved photons. The cross section in the massless approach is found to be significantly larger than in the massive scheme. The deviation originates from several contributions which are disentangled. We argue that large- p ⊥ photoproduction of charm quarks at HERA will be sensitive to the charm content of the photon structure function.