Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Hadronic production of charmed mesons

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:6407080
An experiment designed to study the associated production of two charmed particles in the hadronic interaction of 200 GeV/c negative pions with a beryllium target are described. A two arm magnetic spectrometer was triggered by a muon in an upper detector arm. Such muons can arise from the semi-leptonic decay of one of the charmed particles. The other charmed particle was detected by an open geometry, forward arm spectrometer. Based on a data sample of 1.18 million events, statistically significant signals for neutral charmed mesons are seen having the correct correlation with the trigger muon charge. The production distribution of these mesons in terms of standard kinematical variables is shown. Cross sections are calculated on the basis of a central production model and linear dependence on the mass number (A) of the target material. The inclusive cross section for charmed (C = +1) neutral mesons is 6.46 +/- 2.31 +/- 2.01 microbarns per nucleon, and the inclusive cross section for anti-charmed (C = -1) neutral mesons is 9.40 +/- 2.87 +/- 2.92 microbarns per nucleon. In both cases, the first error is statistical and the second error is systematic.
Research Organization:
Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (USA)
OSTI ID:
6407080
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English