The minimum invariant mass - a technique for heavy quark searches at collider energy

Simple scaling arguments based on ISR results suggest that the cross section for the associated production of heavy quark mesons at the SPS panti p collider may be quite sizeable. We consider the semi-leptonic decay of such a heavy meson, and emphasize a technique for determining the mass and longitudinal momentum distribution. The important features are illustrated using a simple theoretical model. (orig.)