Determination of the total cc production cross section in 340 GeV/c $\Sigma^{-}$-nucleus interactions

The production of charmed particles by 340 GeV/c momentum Sigma /sup -/ was studied in the hyperon beam experiment WA89 at the CERN-SPS, using the Omega -spectrometer. In two data-taking periods in 1993 and 1994 an integrated luminosity of 1600 mu b/sup -1/ on copper and carbon targets was recorded. From the reconstruction of 930+or-90 charm particle decays in 10 decay channels production cross sections for D, D, D/sub s//sup -/ and Lambda /sub c//sup +/ were determined in the region x/sub F/>0. Assuming an A/sup 1/ dependence of the cross section on the nucleon number, we calculate a total cc production cross section of sigma /sub cc/(x/sub F/>0)=5.3+or-0.4 (stat)+or-1.0(syst)+1.0( Xi /sub c/) mu b per nucleon. The last term is an upper limit on the unknown contribution from charmed-strange baryon production. (24 refs).