Production of $J/\psi$ mesons from $\chi_c$ meson decays in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 1.8$ TeV

We have measured the fraction of J/ψ mesons originating from χc meson decays in pp¯ collisions at s=1.8TeV. The fraction, for PTJ/ψ>4.0GeV/c and |ηJ/ψ|<0.6, not including contributions from b flavored hadrons, is 29.7%±1.7%(stat)±5.7%(syst). We have determined the cross sections for J/ψ mesons originating from χc decays and for directly produced J/ψ mesons. We have found that direct J/ψ production is in excess of the prediction of the color singlet model by the same factor found for direct ψ(2S) production.