Diffractive J/ψ photoproduction as a probe of the gluon density

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We use perturbative QCD, beyond the leading Q² approximation, to show how measurements of diffractive J/ψ production at HERA can provide a sensitive probe of the gluon density of the proton at small values of Bjorken x. We estimate both the effect of the relativistic motion of the c and c within the J/ψ and of the rescattering of the cc quark pair on the proton. We find that the available data for diffractive J/ψ photoproduction can discriminate between the gluon distributions of the most recent sets of partons.