Measurement of charm production at central rapidity in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV

The $p_{\mathrm{T}}$-differential inclusive production cross sections of the prompt charmed mesons $D^0$, $D^{+}$, and $D^{\ast +}$ in the rapidity range |y|<0.5 were measured in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV at the LHC using the ALICE detector. Reconstructing the decays $D^0\to K^{-}{\pi }^{+}$, $D^{+}\to K^{-}{\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{+}$, $D^{\ast +}\to D^0{\pi }^{+}$, and their charge conjugates, about 8,400 $D^0$, 2,900 $D^{+}$, and 2,600 $D^{\ast +}$ mesons with 1<$p_{\mathrm{T}}$<24 GeV/$c$ were counted, after selection cuts, in a data sample of 3.14x10${}^8$ events collected with a minimum-bias trigger (integrated luminosity $L_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{t}}$ = 5/nb). The results are described within uncertainties by predictions based on perturbative QCD.