Observation of associated production of a $Z$ boson with a $D$ meson in the forward region

A search for associated production of a $Z$ boson with an open charm meson is presented using a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $1.0\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ of proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. Seven candidate events for associated production of a $Z$ boson with a $D^0$ meson and four candidate events for a $Z$ boson with a $D^+$ meson are observed with a combined significance of 5.1 standard deviations. The production cross-sections in the forward region are measured to be $$\sigma_{Z\rightarrow\mu^+\mu^-\!,D^0} = 2.50\pm1.12\pm0.22pb$$ $$\sigma_{Z\rightarrow\mu^+\mu^-\!,D^+} = 0.44\pm0.23\pm0.03pb,$$ where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic.