Eur. Phys. J. A 16, 575-581 (2003)
DOI: 10.1140/epja/i2002-10123-8

Threshold open charm production in nucleon-nucleon collisions

M.P. Rekalo¹ and E. Tomasi-Gustafsson<sup>2

1</sup>  Middle East Technical University, Physics Department, Ankara 06531, Turkey
²  DAPNIA/SPhN, CEA/Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France

etomasi@cea.fr

(Received: 18 October 2002 / Revised version: 21 November 2002 / Published online: 18 March 2003)

Abstract
The associative charm particles production in nucleon-nucleon collisions , is described in a general way and the spin and isospin structure of the corresponding matrix elements are derived. Using an analogy with strange-particle ( ) production, the D-meson exchange model is considered in detail. Estimations of the energy behavior of the threshold cross-sections show a large dependence on the form of the phenomenological hadron form factors and indicate that, at threshold, the cross-section is three orders of magnitude smaller than for strange-particle production.

PACS
13.85.-t - Hadron-induced high- and super-high-energy interactions (energy > 10 GeV).
14.20.Lq - Charmed baryons.
14.40.Lb - Charmed mesons.

© Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2003