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CTEQ6 Parton Distributions with Heavy Quark Mass Effects

Previously published CTEQ6 parton distributions adopt the conventional zero-mass parton scheme; these sets are most appropriate for use with massless hard-scattering matrix elements commonly found in most physics applications. For precision observables which are sensitive to charm and bottom quark mass effects, we provide in this paper an additional CTEQ6HQ parton distribution set determined in the more general variable flavor number scheme which incorporates heavy flavor mass effects. The results are obtained by combining these parton distributions with consistently matched DIS structure functions computed in the same scheme. We describe the analysis procedure, examine the predominant features of the new distributions, and compare with previous distributions.