Measurement of charm fragmentation ratios and fractions in photoproduction at HERA

The production of D, D, D, D s and Λ + c charm hadrons and their antiparticles in ep scattering at HERA was measured with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of 79 pb. The measurement has been performed in the photoproduction regime with the exchanged-photon virtuality Q < 1GeV and for photon-proton centre-of-mass energies in the range 130 < W < 300GeV. The charm hadrons were reconstructed in the range of transverse momentum pT (D,Λc) > 3.8GeV and pseudorapidity |η(D,Λc)| < 1.6. The production cross sections were used to determine the ratio of neutral and charged D-meson production rates, Ru/d, the strangeness-suppression factor, γs, and the fraction of charged D mesons produced in a vector state, P d v . The measured Ru/d and γs values agree with those obtained in deep inelastic scattering and in ee annihilations. The measured P d v value is smaller than, but consistent with, the previous measurements. The fractions of c quarks hadronising as a particular charm hadron, f(c → D,Λc), were derived in the given kinematic range. The measured open-charm fragmentation fractions are consistent with previous results, although the measured f(c → D) is smaller and f(c → Λc ) is larger than those obtained in ee annihilations. These results generally support the hypothesis that fragmentation proceeds independently of the hard sub-process. The ZEUS Collaboration S. Chekanov, M. Derrick, S. Magill, S. Miglioranzi, B. Musgrave, J. Repond, R. Yoshida Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439-4815, USA n M.C.K. Mattingly Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan 49104-0380, USA N. Pavel, A.G. Yagües Molina Institut für Physik der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany P. Antonioli, G. Bari, M. Basile, L. Bellagamba, D. Boscherini, A. Bruni, G. Bruni, G. Cara Romeo, L. Cifarelli, F. Cindolo, A. Contin, M. Corradi, S. De Pasquale, P. Giusti, G. Iacobucci, A. Margotti, A. Montanari, R. Nania, F. Palmonari, A. Pesci, A. Polini, L. Rinaldi, G. Sartorelli, A. Zichichi University and INFN Bologna, Bologna, Italy e G. Aghuzumtsyan, D. Bartsch, I. Brock, S. Goers, H. Hartmann, E. Hilger, P. Irrgang, H.-P. Jakob, O.M. Kind, U. Meyer, E. Paul, J. Rautenberg, R. Renner, M. Wang, M. Wlasenko Physikalisches Institut der Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany b D.S. Bailey, N.H. Brook, J.E. Cole, G.P. Heath, T. Namsoo, S. Robins H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom m M. Capua, S. Fazio, A. Mastroberardino, M. Schioppa, G. Susinno, E. Tassi Calabria University, Physics Department and INFN, Cosenza, Italy e J.Y. Kim, K.J. Ma Chonnam National University, Kwangju, South Korea g M. Helbich, Y. Ning, Z. Ren, W.B. Schmidke, F. Sciulli Nevis Laboratories, Columbia University, Irvington on Hudson, New York 10027 o J. Chwastowski, A. Eskreys, J. Figiel, A. Galas, M. Gil, K. Olkiewicz, P. Stopa, D. Szuba, L. Zawiejski The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Cracow, Poland i L. Adamczyk, T. Bo ld, I. Grabowska-Bo ld, D. Kisielewska, J. Lukasik, M. Przybycień, L. Suszycki, J. Szuba Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, AGH-University of Science and Technology, Cracow, Poland p A. Kotański, W. S lomiński Department of Physics, Jagellonian University, Cracow, Poland