Heavy quark production at HERA and the LHC

Abstract

Measurements of heavy quark production, particularly from HERA, their theoretical understanding and their relevance for the LHC are reviewed. The status of beauty and charm production is discussed in the context of the different components of the production process: the parton density function of the colliding hadrons; the hard scatter; and the fragmentation of the quarks into hadrons. The theory of QCD at next-to-leading order generally describes well the hadronic structure and the production of heavy quarks although sometimes fails in details which are highlighted. The fragmentation of heavy quarks measured at HERA is consistent with that at LEP and hence supports the notion of universality.