Measurement of the D*± meson production cross section and F2cc` at high Q2 in ep scattering at HERA

The inclusive production of D * ± (2010) mesons in deep-inelastic e ± p 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 | η (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 2c over(c, ̄) , to the proton structure function F 2 is determined. The measurements are compared with QCD predictions. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.