How much charm can PANDA produce?

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We consider the production of charmed baryons and mesons in the proton-antiproton binary reactions at the energies of the future PANDA experiment. To describe these processes in terms of hadronic interaction models, one needs strong couplings of the initial nucleons with the intermediate and final charmed hadrons. Similar couplings enter the models of binary reactions with strange hadrons. For both charmed and strange hadrons we employ the strong couplings and their ratios calculated from QCD light-cone sum rules. In this method finite masses of c and s quarks are taken into account. Employing the Kaidalov's quark-gluon string model with Regge poles and adjusting the normalization of the amplitudes in this model to the calculated strong couplings, we estimate the production cross section of charmed hadrons. For pp→ ΛcΛc it can reach several tens of nb at plab= 15 GeV, whereas the cross sections of Σc and D pair production are predicted to be smaller.