Measurement of D* Mesons in Jets from p+p Collisions at sqrt{s} = 200 GeV

Abstract

We report the measurement of charged $D^{\ast }$ mesons in inclusive jets produced in proton-proton collisions at a center of mass energy $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV with the STAR experiment at RHIC. For $D^{\ast }$ mesons with fractional momenta $0.2<z<0.5$ in inclusive jets with 11.5 GeV mean transverse energy, the production rate is found to be $N(D^{\ast +}+D^{\ast -})/N(\mathrm{jet})=0.015\pm 0.008(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.007(\mathrm{sys})$. This rate is consistent with perturbative QCD evaluation of gluon splitting into a pair of charm quarks and subsequent hadronization.

7 pages, 4 figures