Observation of a new charmed meson

Using the ARGUS detector at the DORIS II $e^{+}$ $e^{\mathrm{-}}$ storage ring at DESY, we have obtained evidence for a new charmed resonance which decays into $D^{\mathrm{*}\pm }$(2010)${\pi }^{\mp }$. The observed mass and width are 2420±6 MeV/$c^2$ and 70±21 MeV/$c^2$, respectively. The fragmentation function is found to be hard, as expected for a state containing a leading charm quark produced by nonresonant $e^{+}$ $e^{\mathrm{-}}$ annihilation.