Study of $D^{*+/-}$ Meson Production in Diffractive $ep$ Scattering at HERA

TL;DR

This paper measures $D^{*+/-}$ meson production in diffractive electron-proton scattering at HERA, comparing experimental results with theoretical models to enhance understanding of diffraction and charm quark production.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed measurement of $D^{*+/-}$ production in diffractive processes at HERA, using large datasets and rapidity gap identification techniques.

Findings

Measured integrated and differential cross sections for $D^{*+/-}$ production.

Compared experimental results with theoretical predictions, finding good agreement.

Enhanced understanding of charm production mechanisms in diffractive scattering.

Abstract

$D^{*+/-}$ production in the diffractive interactions was measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using integrated luminosities of 44 pb$^{-1}$ in deep inelastic scattering and 38 pb$^{-1}$ in photoproduction processes. Diffractive interactions were identified by a large gap in the rapidity distribution of final states. $D^{*+/-}$ mesons were reconstructed from the decay $D^{*+} -> D^0\pi_s^+$ with {$D^0 -> K^-\pi^+$} (+c.c.). Integrated and differential cross sections were compared to theoretical expectations.