The inclusive production of D*(2010) mesons in deep-inelastic ep scattering is measured in the kinematic region of photon virtuality 100 < Q^2 < 1000 GeV^2 and inelasticity 0.02 < y < 0.7. Single and double differential cross sections for inclusive D* meson production are measured in the visible range defined by |eta(D*)| < 1.5 and p_T(D*) > 1.5 GeV. The data were collected by the H1 experiment during the period from 2004 to 2007 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 351 pb^{-1}. The charm contribution, F_2^{ccbar}, to the proton structure function F_2 is determined. The measurements are compared with QCD predictions.
Total inclusive cross section for D*+- production.
Single differential cross section DSIG/DPT for D*+- production. The DSYS errors are the uncorrelated and correlated systematicuncertainties respectively.
Single differential cross section DSIG/DETARAP for D*+- production. The DSYS errors are the uncorrelated and correlated systematicuncertainties respectively.
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.
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