D sup * sup+- production in 350 GeV/c pi sup - -N interactions

We report measurements of D sup * sup+- production in interactions between 350 GeV/c pi sup - particles and nuclei. Reconstruction of the decay D sup * sup + -> D sup 0 pi sup + and charge conjugate, with D sup 0 identified via its decays to K sup -pi sup + and K sup -pi sup -pi sup +pi sup + , has allowed isolation of a sample of 611 +- 28 D sup * sup+- mesons, produced at positive x sub F. Assuming a linear A-dependence, the cross-section per nucleon in the region x sub F > 0 is measured to be 1.41 +- 0.10 +- 0.11 mu b for D sup * sup + and 1.84 +- 0.12 +- 0.15 mu b for D sup * 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 * sup+- (vector-meson) production with data for production of charmed pseudoscalar mesons