We study the effect of gluon number fluctuations (Pomeron loops) on the proton structure function at HERA.It is shown that the description of charm and bottom quarks and longitudinal structure functions are improved,with χ2 /d.o.f =0.803 (f luctuations) as compared with χ2 /d.o.f =0.908 (without f luctuations),once the gluon number fluctuations are included.We find that in the gluon number fluctuation case the heavy quarks do not play an important role in the proton structure function as the saturation model.The successful description of the HERA data indicates that the gluon number fluctuation could be one of the key mechanisms to describe the proton structure function at HERA energies.
We study the effect of gluon number fluctuations (Pomeron loops) on the proton structure function at HERA. It is shown that the description of charm and bottom quarks and longitudinal structure functions are improved, with x^2/d.o.f=0.803 (fluctuations) as compared with x^2/d.o.f=0.908 (without fluctuations), once the gluon number fluctuations are included. We find that in the gluon number fluctuation case the heavy quarks do not play an important role in the proton structure function as the saturation model. The successful description of the HERA data indicates that the gluon number fluctuation could be one of the key mechanisms to describe the proton structure function at HERA energies.