Production of D* mesons in photon-photon collisions at $\sqrt{s}_{ee}$ = 183 GeV and 189 GeV using the OPAL detector at LEP

The inclusive production of D*/sup +or-/ mesons in photon-photon collisions has been measured using the OPAL detector at LEP at e/sup +/e/sup -/ centre-of-mass energies square root (s/sub ee/) of 183 and 189 GeV. The D*/sup +/ mesons are reconstructed in their decay to D /sup 0/ pi /sup +/ with the D/sup 0/ observed in the two decay modes K/sup -/ pi /sup +/ and K/sup -/ pi /sup +/ pi /sup -/ pi /sup +/. After background subtraction, 121+or-14 (stat.) D*/sup +or-/ events have been selected. Jets are reconstructed using a cone jet finding algorithm to separate direct and single-resolved events. Differential cross-sections d sigma /dp/sub T//sup D/* and d sigma /d eta /sup D /* as functions of the D*/sup +or-/ transverse momentum p/sub T//sup D/* and pseudorapidity eta /sup D/* are presented in the kinematic region 2 <p/sub T//sup D/*<12 GeV and eta /sup D/*<1.5. They are compared to next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD calculations. The total cross-section for the process e/sup +/e/sup - / to e/sup +/e/sup -/cc in the anti-tagged mode is measured to be sigma (e/sup +/e/sup -/ to e/sup +/e/sup -/cc)=(945+or-239) pb with a direct contribution of sigma (e/sup +/e/sup -/ to e/sup +/e/sup -/cc) /sub dir/=(392+or-117) pb and a single-resolved contribution of sigma (e/sup +/e/sup -/ to e/sup +/e/sup -/cc)/sub res/=(553+or-184) pb. (16 refs).