The fixed-target MIPP experiment, Fermilab E907, was designed to measure the production of hadrons from the collisions of hadrons of momenta ranging from 5 to 120 GeV/c on a variety of nuclei. These data will generally improve the simulation of particle detectors and predictions of particle beam fluxes at accelerators. The spectrometer momentum resolution is between 3 and 4%, and particle identification is performed for particles ranging between 0.3 and 80 GeV/c using $dE/dx$, time-of-flight and Cherenkov radiation measurements. MIPP collected $1.42 \times10^6$ events of 120 GeV Main Injector protons striking a target used in the NuMI facility at Fermilab. The data have been analyzed and we present here charged pion yields per proton-on-target determined in bins of longitudinal and transverse momentum between 0.5 and 80 GeV/c, with combined statistical and systematic relative uncertainties between 5 and 10%.
The production yields of PI+ and PI- and the ratio of these yields. The first uncertainty given on each value combines statistical uncertainties and systematic uncertainties from backgrounds.
An experiment was done in the external proton beam of the Berkeley 184-in. cyclotron to measure the production cross sections for pions from various target nuclei, from hydrogen to lead. The cross-section data are presented and the reaction mechanisms discussed. The hydrogen production appears to fit the one-pion-exchange model.
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