Production Of J/Psi Via Psi' And Chi Decay In 300-Gev/C Proton-Nucleon And Pi+/--Nucleon Interactions

The production of the chi2 and chi2 states of charmonium has been observed in 300 GeV/c pi+/-N and pN interactions. The fraction of the total inclusive J/psi production due to radiative chi decay has been determined to be 0.40 +/- 0.04, 0.37 +/- 0.03, and 0.30 +/- 0.04 for the pi+, pi-, and proton data, respectively. Total cross sections for chi1 and chi2 production of 131 +/- 18 +/- 14 and 188 +/- 30 +/- 21 nb/nucleon in the 300 GeV/c pi-N interactions have been obtained. By measuring the contributions to the J/psi production due to both psi' and radiative chi decay, the cross sections for direct J/psi production have been determined to be 97 +/- 14, 102 +/- 14, and 89 +/- 12 nb/nucleon for pi+, pi-, and protons, respectively.