Measurement of D*+- meson production in e+- p scattering at low Q**2

The production of D-*+/-: (2010) mesons in e(+/-) p scattering in the range of exchanged photon virtuality 0.05 D-0 pi(+) with D-0 -> K-pi(+) and corresponding antiparticle decay were used to identify D* mesons and the ZEUS beampipe calorimeter was used to identify the scattered electron. Differential D* cross sections as functions of Q(2), inelasticity, y, transverse momentum of the D* meson, p(T)(D*), and pseudorapidity of the D* meson, eta(D*), have been measured in the kinematic region 0.02 < y < 0.85, 1.5 < p(T)(D*) < 9.0 GeV and \eta(D*)\< 1.5. The measured differential cross sections are in agreement with two different NLO QCD calculations. The cross sections are also compared to previous ZEUS measurements in the photoproduction and DIS regimes. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.