Polarized Photoproduction of Heavy Quarks in Next-to-Leading Order

The results of a next-to-leading order calculation of heavy quark production in longitudinally polarized photon-nucleon collisions are presented. At c.m. energy \(\sqrt{S}=10\) GeV, for \(\vec \gamma +\vec p \to c+X\), cross sections differential in the transverse momentum and rapidity of the charmed quark \(c\) and the corresponding asymmetries are presented; also, as functions of \(\sqrt{S}\), integrated cross sections, \(K\)-factors and the corresponding asymmetries are given. Errors in the asymmetries are estimated and the possibility to distinguish between three scerarios differing essentially in the polarized gluon distribution is discussed.