Charged-particle multiplicity distributions in 400-GeV/c pd interactions have been studied in an experiment in the Fermilab 30-inch bubble chamber. From the fractions of odd-prong and backward-proton events, a rescatter fraction of 0.22±0.01 is found (for N≥3). The pn multiplicity distribution is obtained from the odd-prong distribution plus a no-cascade assumption. After making one-prong and two-prong estimates, mean charged-particle multiplicities of 9.49±0.12 for pd (including slow particles) and 8.57±0.12 for pn are obtained. In the incident momentum range 100 to 400 GeV/c, pd and pp distributions are very similar to each other and are different from pn distributions.
Inclusive and semi-inclusive cross sections for gp0 production in 100, 200, and 360 GeV/c π−p interactions are presented. Differential cross sections for ρ0 production as functions of c.m. rapidity and transverse momentum are compared with the corresponding differential cross sections for pion production. Effects of various methods of estimating background on the values obtained for ρ0 production cross sections are discussed. About 10% of the final-state charged pions appear to come from ρ0 decay. Thus, while ρ0 production and decay is a significant source of final-state pions, other sources must contribute the majority of the produced pions.
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