Eur. Phys. J. C (2007) 51: 271-287
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-007-0296-5

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Inclusive D^*± meson and associated dijet production in deep-inelastic scattering at HERA

¹ I. Physikalisches Institut, RWTH, Aachen, Germany
² Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia
³ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
⁴ Inter-University Institute for High Energies ULB-VUB, Brussels, Universiteit Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium
⁵ Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, UK
⁶ Institute for Nuclear Physics, Cracow, Poland
⁷ Institut für Physik, Universität Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany
⁸ Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia
⁹ CEA, DSM/DAPNIA, CE-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
¹⁰ DESY, Hamburg, Germany
¹¹ Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
¹² Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany
¹³ Physikalisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
¹⁴ Kirchhoff-Institut für Physik, Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
¹⁵ Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Košice, Slovak Republic
¹⁶ Department of Physics, University of Lancaster, Lancaster, UK
¹⁷ Department of Physics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
¹⁸ Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, UK
¹⁹ Physics Department, University of Lund, Lund, Sweden
²⁰ CPPM, CNRS/IN2P3 – Univ. Mediterranee, Marseille, France
²¹ Departamento de Fisica Aplicada, CINVESTAV, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico
²² Departamento de Fisica, CINVESTAV, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico
²³ Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow, Russia
²⁴ Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow, Russia
²⁵ Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, München, Germany
²⁶ LAL, Université de Paris-Sud 11, IN2P3-CNRS, Orsay, France
²⁷ LLR, Ecole Polytechnique, IN2P3-CNRS, Palaiseau, France
²⁸ LPNHE, Universités Paris VI and VII, IN2P3-CNRS, Paris, France
²⁹ Faculty of Science, University of Montenegro, Podgorica, Montenegro
³⁰ Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Praha, Czech Republic
³¹ Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Praha, Czech Republic
³² Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma Tre and INFN Roma 3, Roma, Italy
³³ Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy, Sofia, Bulgaria
³⁴ Institute of Physics and Technology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
³⁵ Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland
³⁶ Fachbereich C, Universität Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany
³⁷ Yerevan Physics Institute, Yerevan, Armenia
³⁸ DESY, Zeuthen, Germany
³⁹ Institut für Teilchenphysik, ETH, Zürich, Switzerland
⁴⁰ Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
⁴¹ Physics Department, National Technical University, Zografou Campus, 15773, Athens, Greece
⁴² Rechenzentrum, Universität Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany
⁴³ University of P.J. Šafárik, Košice, Slovak Republic
⁴⁴ CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
⁴⁵ Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, München, Germany
⁴⁶ Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

^* e-mail: obehnke@mail.desy.de

Received: 16 January 2007
Revised: 6 March 2007
Published online: 26 May 2007

Abstract

Inclusive D^*± production is measured in deep-inelastic ep scattering at HERA with the H1 detector. In addition, the production of dijets in events with a D^*± meson is investigated. The analysis covers values of photon virtuality 2 ≤ Q² ≤ 100 GeV² and of inelasticity 0.05≤y≤0.7. Differential cross sections are measured as a function of Q² and x and of various D^*± meson and jet observables. Within the experimental and theoretical uncertainties all measured cross sections are found to be adequately described by next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD calculations, based on the photon–gluon fusion process and DGLAP evolution, without the need for an additional resolved component of the photon beyond what is included at NLO. A reasonable description of the data is also achieved by a prediction based on the CCFM evolution of partons involving the k_T-unintegrated gluon distribution of the proton.