Momentum Correlations of Charmed Pairs Produced in $\pi^{-}-Cu$ Interactions at 230 GeV/c

Abstract

We study the production characteristics of 557 pairs of charmed hadrons produced in $\pi^{-}-Cu$\ interactions at 230~GeV/c using a momentum estimator for charmed hadrons with missing decay products. We find, the mean value of the transverse momentum squared of the charmed pairs is $<$\pts$>=(1.98\pm 0.11\pm 0.09)\;$ GeV$^2$/c$^2$, the mean rapidity difference is $<|$\yd$|>=0.54\pm 0.02\pm 0.24$, and the mean effective mass is $<$\mef$>=(4.45\pm 0.03\pm 0.13)\;$ GeV/c$^2$. Comparing these results with the next-to-leading order QCD predictions we find an agreement for the \yd\ and \mef, whilst the measured mean value of \pts\ is significantly larger than the predicted value.