Production of D and psi mesons in hadron-hadron interactions

Hadron production of charmed particles and particles with the hidden charm is considered in the framework of quantum chromodynamics. The formulae for calculations of the inclusive spectra of D-mesons are derived. The mechanisms of psi and psi' production at high energies are considered. The gluon sea is found to give the dominant contribution to psi production cross section at high energies. The relative contribution of the cascade mechanism of psi production is shown to decrease at high energies. At low energies the contribution into intense production of psi-mesons via quark-antiquark annihilation into 1sup(3)Psub(J) states is present. The similar contributions to the psi'-meson production via 2sup(3)Psub(J) states is suppressed due to the high probability of 2sup(3)Psub(J) → D anti D decays, so that at low energies psi' production as well is saturated by the gluon mechanism contribution. In this case the x distribution of psi'-mesons should be much more narrower than that of psi-mesons, due to the narrower longitudinal momentum distribution for fluons compared with that of valent quarks