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.
Inelastic differential cross sections have been measured for π±p, K±p, and p±p at 140- and 175-GeV/c incident momentum over a |t| range from 0.05 to 0.6 GeV2 and covering a missing-mass region from 2.4 to 9 GeV2. For Mx2 greater than 4 GeV2, the invariant quantity Mx2d2σdtdMx2 was found to be independent of Mx2 at fixed t and could be adequately described by a simple triple-Pomeron form. The values obtained for the triple-Pomeron couplings are identical within statistics for all channels.
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