# Measurement of charm production at central rapidity in proton proton collisions at sqrt{s}=2.76 TeV

Submission Date:
17/05/2012
Article Information
Submission Form
System:
p-p
Energy:
2.76 TeV
Energy:
7 TeV
Abstract Plain Text:

The pt-differential production cross sections of the prompt (B feed-down subtracted) charmed mesons D0, D+, and D*+ in the rapidity range |y|<0.5, and for transverse momentum 1< pt <12 GeV/c, were measured in proton--proton collisions at sqrt{s}=2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis exploited the hadronic decays D0-> K pi, D+ -> K pi pi, D*+ -> D0 pi, and their charge conjugates, and was performed on a Lint = 1.35 nb-1 event sample collected in 2011 with a minimum-bias trigger. The total charm production cross section at sqrt{s}=2.76 TeV and at 7 TeV was evaluated by extrapolating to the full phase space the pt-differential production cross sections at sqrt{s}=2.76 TeV and our previous measurements at sqrt{s}=7 TeV. The results were compared to existing measurements and to perturbative-QCD calculations. The fraction of cubar D mesons produced in a vector state was also determined.