Properties of neutral charmed mesons in <Emphasis Type="Italic">pA</Emphasis> interactions at 70 GeV

The results of data handling for the E-184 experiment involving the irradiation of the active target, consisting of carbon, silicon, and lead plates by a 70-GeV proton beam are presented. When the two-prong neutral charmed meson decay signal was selected and the cross section for charm production at a near-threshold energy was estimated (σ(c $ \bar c $ \bar c ) = 7.1 ± 2.4(stat.) ± 1.4(syst.) μb/nucleon), some properties of D ⁰ and $ \bar D^0 $ \bar D^0 were investigated. These include the atomic-weight dependence of the cross section on the target mass number (its A dependence); the differential cross sections dσ/dp _t ² and dσ/dx _F; and the dependence of the parameter α on x _F, p _t ², and p _lab. The experimental results are compared with the predictions of the FRITIOF7.02 program.