Heavy Flavour Production in Two-Photon Processes

by Akos Csilling (CERN-EP)

Monday 19 Nov 2001, 16:30 → 17:30 Europe/Zurich

500/1-001 - Main Auditorium (CERN)

The measurement of heavy flavour production in two-photon processes provides a reliable test of perturbative QCD, since the high scale introduced by the charm or beauty quark mass ensures the applicability of perturbative methods in the theoretical predictions. The high energy and luminosity achieved by LEP provides plenty of data on two-photon processes. Charm production has been studied in more detail, including various differential cross-sections and the measurement of the charm structure function of the photon in single-tag two-photon events, while for the heavier beauty quark only the total cross-section has been measured. In most cases the NLO predictions are in agreement with the data, but some discrepancies are observed in the low-x region of the charm structure function and also the total beauty cross-section, indicating that our present understanding of these processes is far from complete. A summary of the recent experimental results on heavy flavour production in two-photon processes will be presented, with an outlook on possible extensions of the measurements at a future e⁺e^- linear collider.

Organiser(s): Ariane Frey / EP Division

Note: * Tea & coffee will be served at 16.00 hrs.