Inclusive $D^0$ and $D^*\pm$ Production in Deep Inelastic $ep$ Collisions at HERA

Abstract

First results on inclusive D0 and D* production in deep inelastic $ep$ scattering are reported using data collected by the H1 experiment at HERA in 1994. Differential cross sections are presented for both channels and are found to agree well with QCD predictions based on the boson gluon fusion process. A charm production cross section for 10 GeV$^2\le Q^2\le100$~GeV$^2$ and $0.01\le y\le0.7$ of $\sigma(ep\to c\barcX) = (17.4 \pm 1.6 \pm 1.7 \pm 1.4)$~nb is derived. A first measurement of the charm contribution F2_charm(x,Q^2) to the proton structure function for Bjorken $x$ between $8\cdot10^{-4}$ and $8\cdot10^{-3}$ is presented. In this kinematic range a ratio F2_charm/F2= 0.237\pm0.021{+0.043\atop-0.039}$ is observed.