Production of a prompt photon in association with a charm quark at next-to-leading order in QCD

Abstract

A second order $O({\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{s}^{2})$ calculation in perturbative quantum chromodynamics of the two particle inclusive cross section is presented for the reaction $p+\overline{p}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\gamma}+c+X$ for large values of the transverse momentum of the prompt photon and charm quark. The combination of analytic and Monte Carlo integration methods used here to perform phase-space integrations facilitates the imposition of photon isolation restrictions and other selections of relevance in experiments. Differential distributions are provided for various observables. Positive correlations in rapidity are predicted.