Measurement of prompt charm meson production cross sections in p p̄ collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV

We report on measurements of differential cross sections d sigma /dp/sub T/ for prompt charm meson production in pp collisions at square root s=1.96 TeV using 5.8+or-0.3 pb/ sup-1/ of data from the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. The data are collected with a new trigger that is sensitive to the long lifetime of hadrons containing heavy flavor. The charm meson cross sections are measured in the central rapidity region |y| lt or=1 in four fully reconstructed decay modes: D/ sup0/ to K/ sup-/ pi / sup+/, D/ sup*+/ to D/ sup0/ pi / sup+/, D/ sup+/ to K/ sup-/ pi / sup+/ pi / sup+/, D/sub s// sup+/ to phi pi / sup+/, and their charge conjugates. The measured cross sections are compared to theoretical calculations.