Strong production mechanisms and total cross sections ofψparticles

Abstract

New BNL and Fermilab data on the production of $\psi$ particles in hadron collisions are shown to imply that the intrinsic production cross section of a particle of mass $m$ varies as $\frac{1}{m^2}$ and scales in the variable $\frac{(s^{\frac{1}{2}}-s_{\mathrm{threshold}}^{}{}_{}{}^{\frac{1}{2}})}{m}$. Vector-proton total cross sections are also observed to be proportional to $\frac{1}{m^2}$, and a connection between production mechanisms and total cross sections is pointed out. On the basis of the existence of high-mass diffraction dissociation in hadron collisions, explicit estimates for diffractive production of $\psi$ are also given. Our calculations are also directly applicable to the hypothetical charmed particles.