Production of<i>J</i>/ψ via ψ’ and χ decay in 300 GeV/<i>c</i>proton- and<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">π</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>±</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:mrow></mml:math>-nucleon interactions

The production of the χ1 and χ2 states of charmonium has been observed in 300 GeV/c π±N and pN interactions. The fraction of the total inclusive J/ψ production due to radiative χ decay has been determined to be 0.40±0.04, 0.37±0.03, and 0.30±0.04 for the π+, π−, and proton data, respectively. Total cross sections have been obtained of 131±18±14 and 188±30±21 nb/nucleon in the 300 GeV/c π−N interactions for χ1 and χ2 production. By measuring the contributions to the J/ψ production due to both ψ’ and radiative χ decay, the cross sections for direct J/ψ production have been determined to be 97±14, 102±14, and 89±12 nb/nucleon for π+, π−, and protons, respectively.Received 21 October 1992DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.70.383©1993 American Physical Society