Study of Charmed-Quark Production by Antineutrinos

Abstract

This Letter presents the $x$ and $y$ distributions of events with visible strange particles produced in charged-current $\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}p$ interactions. It is shown that charmed-particle production via the process ${\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{\ensuremath{\mu}}\overline{s}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\mu}}^{+}\overline{c}$ is required. Using a simple model, we obtain, for the proton, $\ensuremath{\int}x\overline{s}(x)\mathrm{dx}=0.007\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.002$ and $\frac{\ensuremath{\int}x\overline{s}(x)\mathrm{dx}}{\ensuremath{\int}\mathrm{xu}(x)\mathrm{dx}}=0.019\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.006$ in the kinematic region $0.05<x<~0.8$ and $0.1<y<~0.8$. Moreover, these observations require a significant left-handed component for the $({c}{S})$ doublet.