Inclusive production of $D^*(2010)$ mesons in deep inelastic scattering has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 81.9 pb$^{-1}$. The decay channel $D^{* +}\to D^0 \pi^+ $ with $D^0\to K^-\pi^+$ and corresponding antiparticle decay were used to identify $D^*$ mesons. Differential $D^*$ cross sections with $1.5<Q^2<1000$ GeV$^2$ and $0.02<y<0.7$ in the kinematic region $1.5<p_T(D^*)<15$ GeV and $|\eta(D^*)|<1.5$ are compared to different QCD calculations incorporating different parameterisations of the parton densities in the proton. The data show sensitivity to the gluon distribution in the proton and are reasonably well described by next-to-leading-order QCD with the ZEUS NLO QCD fit used as the input parton density in the proton. The observed cross section is extrapolated to the full kinematic region in $p_T(D^*)$ and $\eta(D^*)$ in order to determine the open-charm contribution, $F_2^{\rm charm}(x,Q^2)$, to the proton structure function, $F_2$. Since, at low $Q^2$, the uncertainties of the data are comparable to those from the QCD fit, the measured differential cross sections in $y$ and $Q^2$ should be used in future fits to constrain the gluon density.
Overall total cross section. The second DSYS error is due to the uncertainty in the BR for D* and D0 decay.
Measured differential cross section as a function of Q**2.
Measured differential cross section as a function of X.
The inclusive production of D$^{*\pm}$ mesons in two-photon collisions is measured with the ALEPH detector at $\epem$ centre-of-mass energies from 183$\unit{GeV}$ to 209$\unit{GeV}$. A total of $360 \pm 27$ D$^{*\pm}$ meson events were observed from an integrated luminosity of 699\unit{pb^{-1}}$. Contributions from direct and single-resolved rocesses are separated using the ratio of the transverse momentum $p_{\rm t}^{\rm D^{*\pm}}$ of the D$^{*\pm}$ to the visible invariant mass $W_{\mathrm{vis}}$ of the event. Differential cross sections of D$^{*\pm}$ production as functions of $p_{\rm t}^{\rm D^{*\pm}}$ and the pseudorapidity $|\eta^{\rm D^{*\pm}}| $ are measured in the range $ 2\unit{GeV}/c < p_{\rm t}^{\rm D^{*\pm}} < 12\unit{GeV}/c $ and $ |\eta^{\rm D^{*\pm}}| < 1.5 $. They are compared to next-to-leading order (NLO)perturbative QCD calculations. The extrapolation of the integrated visible D$^{*\pm}$ cross section to the total charm cross section, based on the Pythia Monte Carlo program, yields $ \sigma (\epem \to \epem \ccbar)_ {=197\unit{GeV}} = 731 \pm 74_{\mathrm{stat}} \pm 47_{\mathrm{syst}} \pm 157_{\mathrm{extr}} \unit{pb} $.
Total extrapolated charm production cross section. The second DSYS error isdue to the uncertainty in the extrapolation.
Visible cross section with the acceptance range.
Visible cross section within the acceptance ranges for the three decay modes observed.
Inclusive phi-meson production in neutral current deep inelastic e+p scattering has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 45 pb^{-1}. The phi mesons were studied in the range 10<Q2<100 GeV2, where Q2 is the virtuality of the exchanged photon, and in restricted kinematic regions in the transverse momentum, p_T, pseudorapidity, eta, and the scaled momentum in the Breit frame, x_p. Monte Carlo models with the strangeness-suppression factor as determined by analyses of e+e- annihilation events overestimate the cross sections. A smaller value of the strangeness-suppression factor reduces the predicted cross sections, but fails to reproduce the shapes of the measured differential cross sections. High-momentum phi mesons in the current region of the Breit frame give the first direct evidence for the strange sea in the proton at low x.
The total PHI meson cross section, corrected for acceptance (45%) in the given kinematical region.
Differential PHI meson cross section as a function of its transverse momentum.
Differential PHI meson cross section as a function of its pseudorapidity.
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