Measurement of D-meson production at mid-rapidity in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

Abstract

The production cross sections for prompt charmed mesons D0, D+, D∗+ and Ds+ were measured at mid-rapidity in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy √s=7TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). D mesons were reconstructed from their decays D0→ K-π+, D+→ K-π+π+, D∗+→ D0π+, Ds+→K-K+π+, and their charge conjugates. With respect to previous measurements in the same rapidity region, the coverage in transverse momentum (pT) is extended and the uncertainties are reduced by a factor of about two. The accuracy on the estimated total cc¯ production cross section is likewise improved. The measured pT-differential cross sections are compared with the results of three perturbative QCD calculations.