Production of Neutral D (1863) Mesons in 217 Gev/c Negative Pion Proton Interactions.

This thesis reports on the analysis of data obtained during FNAL experiment E369. The Chicago Cyclotron Magnet Spectrometer Facility was used to perform a search for the hadronic production of charmed D mesons. A 217 Gev (pi)('-) beam was incident on a liquid hydrogen target. The trigger required a slow recoil proton in coincidence with a muon. A total of 26 (+OR-) 8 neutral D mesons were observed through their KO(pi)('+)(pi)('-) decay mode. The distributions of Feynman X, missing mass, and momentum transfer to the recoil proton were consistent with diffractive production. Cross sections were calculated based on a diffractive model.