Inclusive D*-meson production in ep scattering at low Q2 in the GM-VFN scheme at NLO

Abstract

We have calculated the next-to-leading order cross sections for the inclusive production of D*-mesons in ep collisions at HERA for finite, although very small Q2. In this Q2-range, the same approximations as for photoproduction can be used. Our calculation is performed in the general-mass variable-flavour-number scheme. In this approach, large logarithms of the charm transverse momentum are resummed and finite terms depending on m^2/p_T^2 are kept in the hard scattering cross sections. The theoretical results are compared with recent data from the ZEUS collaboration at HERA. On average, we find good agreement.

Comments: 10 pages