|
|
Inclusive D-meson Production in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA |
| Reference |
N.N., to be presented at DIS 2002, Spring 2002 |
| Figures |
|
| Contact |
J.Gassner, C.Grab |
| Abstract |
The inclusive production of charmed mesons in deep inelastic scattering is studied with the H1 detector at HERA. Production cross sections are measured for D^*, D^0 and, for the first time at HERA, also D^+ mesons through their decay D^+ --> K^- pi^+ pi^+. The finite lifetimes of 0.4 to 1 ps for the D^0 and D^+ mesons lead to a separation of their production and decay vertices which is used to distinguish signal and background processes and to substantially improve the signal qualities. The reconstruction of separation distances of some 1/10 mm is made possible by exploiting the high-precission tracking capabilities of the central H1 silicon detector. The measured production cross sections are used to test the isospin invariance of the fragmentation process and to extract the fraction P_V of D-mesons produced in a vector state. The results are compared with values measured e.g. at e^+ e^- colliders and allow tests of the assumed universality of the charm fragmentation process. |
| Links |
back to overview
H1 internal information
| | |