The measurements of the production of prompt D0, D+, D∗+, and D+s
Nearby in the stack
mesons in proton--proton (pp) collisions at
s=5.02
TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are reported. D mesons were reconstructed at mid-rapidity (
∣y∣<0.5
) via their hadronic decay channels
D0→K−π+
,
D+→K−π+π+
,
D∗+→D0π+→K−π+π+
,
Ds+→φπ+→K+K−π+
, and their charge conjugates. The production cross sections were measured in the transverse momentum interval
0<pT<36GeV/c
for
D0
,
1<pT<36GeV/c
for
D+
and
D∗+
, and in
2<pT<24GeV/c
for
D+s
mesons. Thanks to the higher integrated luminosity, an analysis in finer
pT
bins with respect to the previous measurements at
s=7
TeV was performed, allowing for a more detailed description of the cross-section
pT
shape. The measured
pT
-differential production cross sections are compared to the results at
s=7
TeV and to four different perturbative QCD calculations. Its rapidity dependence is also tested combining the ALICE and LHCb measurements in pp collisions at
s=5.02
TeV. This measurement will allow for a more accurate determination of the nuclear modification factor in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions performed at the same nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy.