Study of D*(2010)+- Production in ep Collisions at HERA

We report the first observation of charmed mesons with the ZEUS detector at HERA using the decay channel D*(+) --> (D-0 --> K(-)pi(+)) pi(+) (+ c.c.). Clear signals in the mass difference Delta M=M(D*)-M(D-0) as well as in the M(K pi) distribution at the D-0 mass are found. The ep cross section for inclusive D*(+/-) production with Q(2) c $($) over bar cX)=(0.45+/-0.11(-0.22)(+0.37)) mu b at root s=296 GeV and [W]=198 GeV. The average gamma p charm cross section sigma(gamma p --> c $($) over bar cX) is found to be (6.3+/-2.2(-3.0)(+6.3)) mu b at [W]=163 GeV and (16.9+/-5.2(-8.5)(+13.9)) mu b at [W]=243 GeV. The increase of the total charm photoproduction cross section by one order of magnitude with respect to low energy data experiments is well described by QCD NLO calculations using singular gluon distributions in the proton