a Study of the Hadro Production Characteristics of the First Excited States of Charm Mesons.

This thesis reports on a study of the production characteristics of the first excited states of the charged charm mesons (D^{*+/-}) measured by Fermilab experiment E653 in 800 GeV/c proton-emulsion (| A = 25) interactions. It was found that the average value of the transverse momenta squared of the D^ {*+/-}s is 0.93_sp {-0.09}{+0.10} +/- 0.10 (GeV/c)^2, where the first error is the statistical error and the second one is systematic. The Feynman x_{F} distribution of the D^{*+/-}s fitted the function{dNover dx _{F}} ~ (1 - | x_{F}|)^{N_ {F}},with N_ {F} = 10.7_sp{-1.9 }{+2.0} +/- 2.1. With this parameterization and a MARK III measurement of BR(D^0to K^- + mu^+ + nu_mu) = 0.042 +/- 0.014, the D ^{*+/-} total cross section was estimated as 68 +/- 30 (micro-barns) per proton-nucleon interaction, if a linear atomic number dependence of the total cross section was assumed. However, the observed Feynman x_ {F} distribution of the D^ {*+/-}s might not be symmetric around x_{F} = 0. The significance of the asymmetry between the region -0.06 < x_{F} < 0 and 0 < x_{F} < 0.06 was about 1.7 standard deviation in this charm sample. In x_{F} > -0.05 region, which is well represented in this charm sample, and ignore the BR(D^0 to K^- + mu ^+ + nu_{mu}) measurement, the proton-nucleon total cross section of D^{*+/-} (for x_{F} > -0.05) times the D^0 to K^- + mu^+ + nu_{mu} branching ratio was determined to beBR(D^0 to K^- + mu^+ + nu_ {mu}) times sigma_sp {pN}{D^*+/-}(x_ {F} > -0.05) = 2.6 +/- 0.7 (mu b), under the linear A-dependence assumption. The D^0s from decay D ^{* +} to D^0 + pi ^+ had a lifetime of 0.448_sp {-0.046}{+0.052} +/- 0.068 (pico-seconds), which is consistent with the world average value of 0.428 +/- 0.011 (ps).