Observation of the hadronic final state charge asymmetry in high Q^{2} deep-inelastic scattering at HERA

A first measurement is presented of the charge asymmetry in the hadronic final state from the hard interaction in deep-inelastic ep neutral current scattering at HERA. The measurement is performed in the range of negative squared four momentum transfer 100 < Q(2) < 8000 GeV2. The difference between the event normalised distributions of the scaled momentum, x(p), for positively and negatively charged particles, measured in the current region of the Breit frame, is studied together with its evolution as a function of Q. The results are compared to Monte Carlo models at the hadron and parton levels. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.