Measurement of D^{* ±} Meson Production in e^± p Scattering at Low Q²

The production of D* ± (2010) mesons in e± p scattering in the range of exchanged photon virtuality 0.05 < Q2 < 0.7 GeV2 has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 82 pb-1. The decay channels D* + → D0 π+ with D0 → K- π+ 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 Q2, inelasticity, y, transverse momentum of the D* meson, pT (D*), and pseudorapidity of the D* meson, η (D*), have been measured in the kinematic region 0.02 < y < 0.85, 1.5 < pT (D*) < 9.0 GeV and | η (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.