Comparison of phase space slicing and dipole subtraction methods for γ*→Q(Q)over-bar

We compare the phase space slicing and dipole subtraction methods in the computation of the inclusive and differential next-to-leading order cross sections for heavy quark production in the simple process gamma* --> Q (K) over bar. For the phase space slicing method we study the effects of improvement terms that remove restrictions on the slicing parameter s(min),. For the dipole method our comparison is a first check on some of its counterterms involving massive quarks, derived recently. In our comparison we address issues such as numerical accuracy and efficiency.