Measurement of the Lifetime of Neutral Charmed Mesons

Abstract The lifetime of neutral charmed particles photoproduced in emulsion has been measured. The lifetime value presented here was obtained from a sample of 22D 0 mesons, 18 of which have their charmed partner seen in emulsion. The sample is essentially background-free. The result obtained is τ D 0 =(2.11 +1.21 -0.63 )×10 13 s The D 0 mass derived from 8 3C events is m D 0 = 1856 ± 36 MeV/ c 2 .