Measurement of the D* Meson Production Cross Section and F_2^{ccbar}, at High Q^2, in ep Scattering at HERA

Abstract

The inclusive production of D*(2010) mesons in deep-inelastic ep scattering is measured in the kinematic region of photon virtuality 100 < Q^2 < 1000 GeV^2 and inelasticity 0.02 < y < 0.7. Single and double differential cross sections for inclusive D* meson production are measured in the visible range defined by |eta(D*)| < 1.5 and p_T(D*) > 1.5 GeV. The data were collected by the H1 experiment during the period from 2004 to 2007 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 351 pb^{-1}. The charm contribution, F_2^{ccbar}, to the proton structure function F_2 is determined. The measurements are compared with QCD predictions.