${\bar p}p$ annihilation into ${\bar D}D$ meson pair within an effective Lagrangian model

Abstract

We study the charmed meson pair (${\bar D}^0 D^0$ and $D^- D^+$) production in ${\bar p}p$ annihilation within an effective Lagrangian model that has only the baryon-meson degrees of freedom and involves the physical hadron masses. The reaction amplitudes include terms corresponding to the t-channel $\Lambda_c^+$, $\Sigma_c^+$ and $\Sigma_c^{++}$ baryon exchanges and the s-channel excitation, propagation and decay of the $\Psi$(3770) resonance into the charmed mesons. The initial- and final-state distortion effects have been accounted for by using a simple eikonal approximation-based procedure in the same way as was done in our previous study of the ${\bar p}p \to {\bar \Lambda}_c^-\Lambda_c^+$ reaction within a similar model. The ${\bar D}^0 D^0$ production reaction is dominated by the $\Lambda_c^+$ baryon exchange process, and the corresponding total cross sections are predicted to be in the range of 0.18 - 0.7 $\mu$b for antiproton beam momenta varying between threshold and 20 $GeV/c$. The $\Psi$(3770) resonance contributions have a large influence on the differential cross sections of the $D^- D^+$ production reaction.