Eur. Phys. J. C (1998) 1: 293-300
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01245819

Open charm production in diffractive ep collisions

Centre de Physique Théoriquea, Ecole Polytechnique, F-91128, Palaiseau Cedex, France

^* e-mail: diehl@orphee.polytechnique.fr

Received: 10 January 1997
Revised: 17 February 1997
Published online: 27 February 2005

Abstract

The cross section for the diffractive reactionγ + p → cc + p with a real or virtual photon is calculated in the nonperturbative two-gluon exchange model of Landshoff and Nachtmann. Numerical predictions are given for cross sections and spectra at typical HERA values of c.m. energy and photon virtuality. The contribution of charm to the diffractive structure function is evaluated and found to be rather small in the model, and the ratio between the production rates for bb and cc is tiny.