Detection of the production and decays of neutral charmed mesons in proton-nucleus interactions at 70 GeV with the SVD-2 facility

The results of processing the data of the SERP-E-184 experiment that studied mechanisms of the production of charmed particles in proton-nucleus interactions at 70 GeV and their decays are reported. The data were obtained in irradiating the SVD-2 active target consisting of carbon, silicon, and lead plates with a proton beam of energy 70 GeV. A signal from the two-body decay of neutral charmed mesons D ⁰ and Ď ⁰ is separated. The signal-to-background ratio is (51 ± 17)/(38 ± 13). A detailed simulation of relevant processes on the basis of the FRITIOF and GEANT codes made it possible to find meson-detection efficiencies and to evaluate the charm-production cross section at this energy: σ(c ĉ) = 7.1 ± 2.4(stat.) ± 1.4(syst.) μb/nucleon.