https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-012-2253-1
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
D ∗ and D meson production in muon nucleon interactions at 160 GeV/c
1
Fakultät für Physik, Universität Bielefeld, 33501, Bielefeld, Germany
2
Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Bochum, 44780, Bochum, Germany
3
Helmholtz-Institut für Strahlen- und Kernphysik, Universität Bonn, 53115, Bonn, Germany
4
Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bonn, 53115, Bonn, Germany
5
Institute of Scientific Instruments, AS CR, 61264, Brno, Czech Republic
6
Matrivani Institute of Experimental Research & Education, Calcutta, 700 030, India
7
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 141980, Dubna, Moscow region, Russia
8
Physikalisches Institut, Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg, 91054, Erlangen, Germany
9
Physikalisches Institut, Universität Freiburg, 79104, Freiburg, Germany
10
CERN, 1211, Geneva 23, Switzerland
11
Technical University in Liberec, 46117, Liberec, Czech Republic
12
LIP, 1000-149, Lisbon, Portugal
13
Institut für Kernphysik, Universität Mainz, 55099, Mainz, Germany
14
University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki, 889-2192, Japan
15
Lebedev Physical Institute, 119991, Moscow, Russia
16
Department für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80799, Munich, Germany
17
Physik Department, Technische Universität München, 85748, Garching, Germany
18
Nagoya University, 464, Nagoya, Japan
19
Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague, 18000, Prague, Czech Republic
20
Czech Technical University in Prague, 16636, Prague, Czech Republic
21
Institute for High Energy Physics, State Research Center of the Russian Federation, 142281, Protvino, Russia
22
CEA IRFU/SPhN Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
23
School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel
24
Trieste Section of INFN, 34127, Trieste, Italy
25
Department of Physics and Trieste Section of INFN, University of Trieste, 34127, Trieste, Italy
26
Abdus Salam ICTP and Trieste Section of INFN, 34127, Trieste, Italy
27
Department of Physics and Torino Section of INFN, University of Turin, 10125, Turin, Italy
28
Torino Section of INFN, 10125, Turin, Italy
29
University of Eastern Piedmont, 15100, Alessandria, Italy
30
National Centre for Nuclear Research and University of Warsaw, 00-681, Warsaw, Poland
31
Institute of Radioelectronics, Warsaw University of Technology, 00-665, Warsaw, Poland
32
Yamagata University, Yamagata, 992-8510, Japan
33
National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA, 22230, USA
34
III. Physikalisches Institut, RWTH Aachen University, 52056, Aachen, Germany
* e-mail: Andrea.Bressan@cern.ch
Received:
7
November
2012
Revised:
26
November
2012
Published online:
11
December
2012
The production of D
∗ and D mesons in inelastic scattering of 160 GeV/c muons off a 6LiD target has been investigated with the COMPASS spectrometer at CERN for 0.003 (GeV/c)2<Q
2<10 (GeV/c)2 and 3×10−5<x
Bj
<0.1. The study is based on 8100 events where a D
0 or is detected subsequently to a D
∗+ or D
∗− decay, and on 34000 events, where only a D
0 or
is detected. Kinematic distributions of D
∗, D and
are given as a function of their energy E, transverse momentum p
T
, energy fraction z, and of the virtual photon variables ν, Q
2 and x
Bj
. Semi-inclusive differential D
∗ production cross-sections are compared with theoretical predictions for D
∗ production via photon–gluon fusion into open charm. The total observed production cross-section for D
∗± mesons with laboratory energies between 22 and 86 GeV is (1.9±0.4) nb. Significant cross-section asymmetries are observed between D
∗+ and D
∗− production for ν<40 GeV and z>0.6.
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg and Società Italiana di Fisica, 2012