We report on a study of 15-GeV/c π+p interactions of all topologies using the SLAC 82-in. hydrogen bubble chamber. A description is given of the automatic pattern-recognition techniques used to measure the events. Cross sections are given for meson-resonance production in all topologies. Evidence is presented for a new resonance decaying to five pions. A measurement is made of the branching ratios of the g meson. A study is made of low-mass enhancements in the diffractively produced ρπ, fπ, and gπ channels, and a search is made for nondiffractive production of the A1 meson.
TOPOLOGICAL CROSS SECTIONS.
FITTED EVENTS CROSS SECTIONS.
RESONANCE PRODUCTION CROSS SECTIONS.
Cross sections for resonance production in the reactions π ± p → p π ± π + π − at 16 GeV/ c are determined by a maximum likelihood fit, making use of the measurements of all individual events. The reactions are described by a simple parametrization based on an incoherent superposition of amplitudes for quasi two-body and quasi three-body processes and a non-resonant backgroud. In this way the reflections are accounted for in a consistent way. Thus cross sections are obtained for Δ ++ , Δ 0 , ρ 0 and f 0 production which do not suffer from the uncertainties of background subtraction typical of the usual technique of fitting individual mass distributions.
TWO PARTICLE RESONANCE CROSS SECTIONS.
CHANNEL FRACTIONS FROM THE FITS. THE AUTHORS WARN AGAINST DERIVING CROSS SECTIONS FOR THREE-PARTICLE RESONANCES.