D meson production in 800 GeV/c proton proton collisions.

Abstract

We report on a measurement of the inclusive production properties of the charmed D/D mesons in pp collisions at 800 GeV/c from the Fermilab experiment E743. The D/D total cross section is 42.7 $\pm$ 7.8 $\mu$b (statistical error). A parameterization of the differential production cross section by the empirical form $d\sp2\sigma\over dx\sb{F}dp\sbsp{\perp}{2}$ $\propto$ (1 $-$ $x\sb{F}$)$\sp{n}e\sp{-bp\sbsp{\perp}{2}}$ yields the parameters n = 8.4$\sbsp{-1.9}{+2.2}$ and b = 0.78$\sbsp{-0.16}{+0.19}$ (GeV/c)$\sp{-2}$ for $x\sb{F}$ $\geq$ 0. We compare our results to measurements made at lower energies and to the predictions of perturbative QCD and find that our results are consistent with lowest order QCD predictions assuming $m\sb{c}$ $\approx$ 1.2-1.4 GeV/c$\sp2$ and with next-to-leading order predictions assuming $m\sb{c}$ $\approx$ 1.5 GeV/c$\sp2$.