Charm Production in Charged Current Deep Inelastic e⁺p Scattering at HERA

Abstract

The measurement of charm production in charged current deep inelastic positron-proton scattering is investigated with the ZEUS detector at the HERA collider. The data used has been collected from 1995 to 2000, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of<i>110 pb^-1</i>. Charged <i>D^*</i> mesons decaying in the channel <i>D^*+ → D⁰ <span class="charm">π⁺_s</span></i> with <i>D⁰ → K^- π⁺</i> and the charge-conjugated channel are reconstructed to tag charm quarks. The visible cross section for <i>D^*</i>, <i><span class="charm2">σ^{<tt>D^*</tt>}_<tt>vis</tt></span> = 12.8 ± 4.0(stat) <span class="charm4">^{<tt>+4.7</tt>}_{<tt>-1.5</tt>}</span>(sys) pb</i>, is measured in the kinematic range of <i>Q² > 200 GeV²</i> and <i>y < 0.9</i>, and of <i><span class="charm2">p^{<tt>D^*</tt>}_<tt>T</tt></span> > 1.5 GeV</i> and <i>|η^{D^*}| < 1.5</i>. The upper-limit for the charm production in the same DIS kinematic range is determined to be <i>σ^{e⁺p → <span class="anti">ν</span>_ecX} < 109 pb</i> at <i>90%</i> confidence level.