Heavy quark production in deep inelastic electron-nucleus scattering

TL;DR

This paper investigates heavy quark production in electron-nucleus scattering using the dipole model, emphasizing saturation effects and their influence on observable quantities, which is crucial for future electron-ion collider experiments.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of heavy quark production in eA collisions considering saturation physics and non-linear effects.

Findings

Shadowing significantly reduces charm production at small x

Non-linear effects alter the transverse momentum spectrum

Results inform future electron-ion collider experiments

Abstract

Heavy quark production has been very well studied over the last years both theoretically and experimentally. Theory has been used to study heavy quark production in $e p$ collisions at HERA, in $pp$ collisions at Tevatron and at RHIC, in $pA$ and $dA$ collisions at RHIC and in $AA$ collisions at CERN-SPS and at RHIC. However, to the best of our knowledge, heavy quark production in $eA$ has received almost no attention. With the possible construction of a high energy electron-ion collider, updated estimates of heavy quark production are needed. We address the subject from the perspective of saturation physics and compute the heavy quark production cross section with the dipole model. We isolate shadowing and non-linear effects, showing their impact on the charm structure function and on the transverse momentum spectrum.