Results on $D*^{\pm}$ production from CERN experiment WA92

We report on D*/sup +or-/ production in interactions between 350 GeV /c pi /sup -/ particles and nuclei. Reconstruction of the decay D* /sup +/ to D/sup 0/ pi /sup +/ and charge conjugate, with D/sup 0/ identified via its decays to $9 K/sup -/ pi /sup +/ and K/sup -/ pi /sup -/ pi /sup +/ pi /sup +/, has allowed isolation of a sample of 612+or-28 D*/sup +or-/ mesons, produced at positive x/sub F/. Assuming a linear A-dependence, the measured forward cross-sections $9 per nucleon are 1.41+or-0.15 mu b for D*/sup +/ and 1.90+or-0.19 mu b for D*/sup -/. We present measurements of differential cross-sections with respect to x/sub F/ and P/sub t//sup 2/, and compare data for D* /sup +or-/ $9 (vector-meson) production with data for production of charmed pseudoscalar mesons. (12 refs)