PRODUCTION OF J PSI AND PSI(2S) MESONS IN PI(-)BE COLLISIONS AT 515 GEV/C/

We have studied the production of J/psi and psi(2S) charmonium mesons in 515 GeV/c pi(-)Be collisions in the Feynman-x range 0.1<x(F)<0.8. J /psi mesons were detected via their decay into mu(+)mu(-), and psi(2S) mesons were studied in both the mu(+)mu(-) and J/psi pi(+)pi(-) decay modes. J/psi differential cross sections have been measured as functi ons of x(F),p(T)(2), and the cosine of the Gottfried-Jackson decay ang le. We measure an inclusive J/psi cross section of B(J/psi-->mu(+)mu(- ))sigma (pi(-)Be-->J/psi+X)/A=[9.3+/-0.1(stat)+1.1(syst)] nb/nucleon f or J/psi x(F)>0.1. Our results are compared with those from other expe riments performed at lower beam energies. We also measure the differen tial psi(2S) cross section as a function of both x(F) and p(T)(2) and a psi(2S) inclusive cross section of B(psi(2S)-->J/psi (-)Be-->psi(2S) +X)/A=[7.4+/-1.5(stat)+/-1.2(syst)] nb/nucleon for psi(2S) x(F)>0.1. T he fraction of the inclusive J/psi yield due to psi(2S) meson decays i s 0.083+/-0.017(stat) +/-0.013(syst), and the observed ratio of psi(2S ) decay rates is B(psi(2S)-->J/psi pi(+)pi(-) )/B(psi(2S)-->mu(+)mu(-) ) =30.2+/-7.2(stat)+/-6.8(syst). We have searched for production of '' hidden'' charm resonances decaying into either J/psi pi(+/-),psi(2S)pi (+/-), or J/psi pi(+)pi(-) systems, and report an upper limit of 3.1 n b/nucleon for the product of branching ratio and cross section for the recently reported enhancement at a J/psi pi(+)pi(-) mass of 3.836 GeV /c(2).