Cross-sections for diffractive particle production and pseudorapidity distributions of the decay products of diffractive states are presented. The data were obtained with the UA 5 streamer chamber detector at the CERNpp Collider operated in a new pulsed mode yieldingpp interactions at c.m. energies of 900 and 200 GeV. Data recorded with a special trigger designed to select a sample of events enriched in single-diffractive interactions clearly favour apt-limited fragmentation of diffractive states. The cross-section for single-diffractive particle production ϊ was found to be 7.8±0.5±1.1 mb at 900 GeV and 4.8±0.5±0.8 mb at 200 GeV (first error statistical, second systematic). From the pseudorapidity distribution of diffractive states we deduce the average number of charged particles to be 6.5±1.0 at 900 GeV and 4.1±1.1 at 200 GeV. Furthermore we report on our estimates for the cross-section of double-diffractive particle production at both Collider energies.
Single diffractive cross sections.
Using the UA5 detector, the inclusive central production of Ks<sup loc="post">0</sup> and K<sup loc="post">±</sup> mesons has been measured in non-single-diffractive interactions at the CERN SPS <math altimg="si1.gif"><ovl type="bar" style="s">p</ovl>p</math> Collider at a c.m. energy of 540 GeV. The average transverse momentum is found to be 〈pT〉 = 0.57±0.03 GeV/c in the rapidity range |y|<2.5, which is an increase of about 30% over the top ISR energy. The K/π ratio has increased from about 8% at ISR energies to 9.5±0.9±0.7% (the last error is systematic) at 540 GeV. The average number of Ks<sup loc="post">0</sup> per non-single-diffractive event is 1.1±0.1 and the inclusive inelastic cross section is estimated at 49±5 mb.
NON SINGLE DIFFRACTION CROSS SECTION.
We present results from a measurement of double diffraction dissociation in $\bar pp$ collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The production cross section for events with a central pseudorapidity gap of width $\Delta\eta^0>3$ (overlapping $\eta=0$) is found to be $4.43\pm 0.02{(stat)}{\pm 1.18}{(syst) mb}$ [$3.42\pm 0.01{(stat)}{\pm 1.09}{(syst) mb}$] at $\sqrt{s}=1800$ [630] GeV. Our results are compared with previous measurements and with predictions based on Regge theory and factorization.
Cross sections for double diffractive production.