Study of Charm Fragmentation into D^{*\pm} Mesons in Deep-Inelastic Scattering at HERA

TL;DR

This paper investigates charm quark fragmentation into D* mesons in deep-inelastic scattering at HERA, comparing experimental data with various QCD models to understand the fragmentation process.

Contribution

It provides new measurements of charm fragmentation parameters in different phase space regions and compares them with multiple QCD theoretical models.

Findings

Fragmentation parameters are extracted for different QCD models.

Results show agreement and discrepancies between models and data.

Insights into the charm fragmentation process in deep-inelastic scattering.

Abstract

The process of charm quark fragmentation is studied using $D^{*\pm}$ meson production in deep-inelastic scattering as measured by the H1 detector at HERA. Two different regions of phase space are investigated defined by the presence or absence of a jet containing the $D^{*\pm}$ meson in the event. The parameters of fragmentation functions are extracted for QCD models based on leading order matrix elements and DGLAP or CCFM evolution of partons together with string fragmentation and particle decays. Additionally, they are determined for a next-to-leading order QCD calculation in the fixed flavour number scheme using the independent fragmentation of charm quarks to $D^{*\pm}$ mesons.