We report the first observation of diffractively produced open charm in 800−GeV/c pp collisions of the type pp→pD*X. We measure cross sections of σdiff(D*+)=(0.185±0.044±0.054)μb and σdiff(D*−)=(0.174±0.034±0.029)μb. Our measurements are based on 4.3×109 events recorded by FNAL E690 in the fixed-target run of 1991. We compare our results with previous fixed-target charm experiments.
We have observed diffraction dissociation of KL0 mesons with a carbon target into the exclusive final states KS0π+π−, KS0ω, and KS0φ. The diffraction production cross section for these states is not strongly dependent on the incident energy, varying at most by 30% between 75 and 150 GeV. The mass distributions do not change appreciably as a function of laboratory energy. The ratio of the diffractive mass-threshold production of K*±π∓, KS0ρ, KS0ω, and KS0φ is compared with previously obtained lower-energy data.