Abstract.
Nuclear structure functions and cross-sections for heavy flavour production in lepton–nucleus collisions are investigated in the low x region accessible now or in the near future. The scattering on a heavy nucleus is described by the sum of fan diagrams of BFKL pomerons, which is exact in the high-colour limit. The initial condition for the evolution at x=0.01 is taken from a saturation model, which reproduces the experimental data on the proton. The \(A\) dependence of the structure functions is well described by a power factor \(A^\alpha\), with \(\alpha\) reaching values as low as 1/2 at extremely low x. The total cross-sections for heavy flavour production reach values of the order of mb, and the corresponding transverse momentum distributions are sizable up to transverse momenta larger than the initial large scale \((Q^2+4m_f^2)^{1/2}\).
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Received: 10 July 2001 / Revised version: 23 September 2001 / Published online: 5 November 2001
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Armesto, N., Braun, M. Nuclear structure functions and heavy flavour leptoproduction off the nucleus at small x in perturbative QCD. Eur. Phys. J. C 22, 351–357 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s100520100796
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s100520100796