Abstract
The photoproduction of D∗±(2010) mesons associated with a leading neutron has been observed with the ZEUS detector in ep collisions at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 80 pb−1. The neutron carries a large fraction, xL>0.2, of the incoming proton beam energy and is detected at very small production angles, θn<0.8 mrad, an indication of peripheral scattering. The D∗ meson is centrally produced with pseudorapidity |η|<1.5, and has a transverse momentum pT>1.9 GeV, which is large compared to the average transverse momentum of the neutron of 0.22 GeV. The ratio of neutron-tagged to inclusive D∗ production is 8.85±0.93(stat.)+0.48−0.61(syst.)% in the photon–proton center-of-mass energy range 130<W<280 GeV. The data suggest that the presence of a hard scale enhances the fraction of events with a leading neutron in the final state.
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