Measurement of D*(+/-) production and the charm contribution to F(2) in deep inelastic scattering at HERA RID B-9165-2008 RID C-5889-2009 RID C-2169-2008 RID A-4818-2008

The production of D*(+/-)(2010) mesons in deep inelastic scattering has been measured in the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 37 pb(-1). The decay channels D*(+) --> D(0)pi(+) (+ c.c.), with D(0) --> K(-)pi(+) or D(0) --> K(-)pi(-)pi(+)pi(+), have been used to identify the D mesons. The e(+)p cross section for inclusive D*(+/-) production with 1 < Q(2) < 600 GeV(2) and 0.02 < y < 0.7 is 8.31+/-0.31(stat.)(+0.30)(-0.50) (syst.) nb in the kinematic region 1.5 < pT(D*(+/-)) < 15GeV and \eta(D*(+/-))\ < 1.5. Differential cross sections are consistent with a next-to-leading-order perturbative-QCD calculation when using charm-fragmentation models which take into account the interaction of the charm quark with the proton remnant. The observed cross section is extrapolated to the full kinematic region in pr(D*(+/-)) and eta(D*(+/-)) in order to determine the charm contribution, F(2)(c (c) over bar)(x,Q(2)), to the proton structllre function. The ratio F(2)(c (c) over bar)/F(2) rises from similar or equal to 10% at Q(2) similar or equal to 1.8 GeV(2) to similar or equal to 30% at Q(2) similar or equal to 130 GeV(2) for x values in the rarlge 10(-4) to 10(-3).