A Study of the Atomic Number Dependence of Charmed D Meson Hadroproduction

We have investigated the nuclear A dependence for the production of D0 and D+ charmed mesons in 500 GeV/c πN interactions. The data were taken by the E791 collaboration at Fermilab\u27s Tagged Photon spectrometer and partially analyzed on a large UNIX/RISC based computer farm located at the University of Mississippi. The measurement of the A dependence for charmed meson production reveals information about the quark distribution within nucleons, specifically the quark distribution function and the. nuclear cross sections. The study also reveals information on the state of the E791 reconstruction and Monte Carlo simulation