Measurement of diffractive production of D*+-(2010) mesons in deep inelastic scattering at HERA

Abstract

Diffractive production of D*+-(2010) mesons in deep inelastic scattering has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 44.3 pb-1. Diffractive charm production is identified by the presence of a large rapidity gap in the final state of events in which a D*+-(2010) meson is reconstructed in the decay channel D*+ -> (D0 -> K-pi+) pi+ (+ charge conjugate). Differential cross sections when compared with theoretical predictions indicate the importance of gluons in such diffractive interactions.