Measurement of charm production in deep inelastic scattering with the ZEUS detector

TL;DR

This paper reports measurements of charm production in deep inelastic scattering at HERA using the ZEUS detector, including cross sections and the charm structure function, all aligning well with NLO pQCD predictions.

Contribution

First measurement of charm production cross sections and structure function in DIS using ZEUS data with detailed kinematic analysis.

Findings

Measured charm production cross sections agree with NLO pQCD predictions.

Determined the charm structure function f2-charm from data.

Provided differential cross sections in multiple kinematic variables.

Abstract

We present measurements of charm production in DIS using the ZEUS detector. Data with an integrated luminosity of 83 pb$^{-1}$ have been analysed. For the channel $D^{*+} \to D^{0}\pi_{s}^{+} \to K^{-}\pi^{+}\pi_{s}^{+} (+ c.c.)$ a cross section has been extracted, differential in the kinematical variables $Q^{2}$ and Bjorken $x$. In addition the decay $\overline{c}q \to e^-\overline{\nu}_e X$ has been studied in a data sample of an integrated luminosity of 34 pb$^{-1}$. This results in a cross section, differential in $Q^2$,$x$ and $W$ of the event and in $p_{T}$ and $\eta$ of the decay electron. The structure function f2-charm has also been determined for this channel. All measured cross sections show good agreement with NLO pQCD predictions from HVQDIS.