Inelastic $J/\psi$ photoproduction

Abstract

Inelastic photoproduction of $J/\psi$ particles at high energies is one of the processes to determine the gluon distribution in the nucleon. The QCD radiative corrections to the color-singlet model of this reaction have recently been calculated. They are large at moderate photon energies, but decrease with increasing energies. I compare the cross section and the ${J/\psi}$ energy spectrum with the available fixed-target photoproduction data. Predictions for the HERA energy range are given which demonstrate the sensitivity of the result to the parametrization of the gluon distribution in the small-$x$ region. (Talk presented at the Workshop on "Heavy Quark Physics", Bad Honnef, FRG, Dec. 1994)