Single Electrons from Heavy-Flavor Decays in p+p Collisions at {radical}(s)=200 GeV

The invariant differential cross section for inclusive electron production in p+p collisions at {radical}(s)=200 GeV has been measured by the PHENIX experiment at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider over the transverse momentum range 0.4{<=}p{sub T}{<=}5.0 GeV/c in the central rapidity region (vertical bar {eta} vertical bar {<=}0.35). The contribution to the inclusive electron spectrum from semileptonic decays of hadrons carrying heavy flavor, i.e., charm quarks or, at high p{sub T}, bottom quarks, is determined via three independent methods. The resulting electron spectrum from heavy-flavor decays is compared to recent leading and next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations. The total cross section of charm quark-antiquark pair production is determined to be {sigma}{sub cc}=0.92{+-}0.15(stat){+-}0.54(syst) mb.