Deep--inelastic scattering events with a leading baryon have been detected by the H1 experiment at HERA using a forward proton spectrometer and a forward neutron calorimeter. Semi--inclusive cross sections have been measured in the kinematic region 2 <= Q^2 <= 50 GeV^2, 6.10^-5 <= x <= 6.10^-3 and baryon p_T <= MeV, for events with a final state proton with energy 580 <= E' <= 740 GeV, or a neutron with energy E' >= 160 GeV. The measurements are used to test production models and factorization hypotheses. A Regge model of leading baryon production which consists of pion, pomeron and secondary reggeon exchanges gives an acceptable description of both semi-inclusive cross sections in the region 0.7 <= E'/E_p <= 0.9, where E_p is the proton beam energy. The leading neutron data are used to estimate for the first time the structure function of the pion at small Bjorken--x.
Measurements are presented of $K~0$ meson and $\Lambda$ baryon production in deep-inelastic positron-proton scattering (DIS) in the kinematic range $10 < Q~2 < 70\,$GeV$~2$ and $10~{-4} < x < 10~{-2}$. The measurements, obtained using the H1 detector at the HERA collider, are discussed in the light of possible mechanisms for increased strangeness production at low Bjorken-$x$. Comparisons of the $x_F$ spectra, where $x_F$ is the fractional longitudinal momentum in the hadronic centre-of-mass frame, with results from electron-positron annihilation are made. The $x_F$ spectra and the $K~0$ ``seagull'' plot are compared with previous DIS results. The mean $K~0$ and $\Lambda$ multiplicities are studied as a function of the centre-of-mass energy $W$ and are observed to be consistent with a logarithmic increase with $W$ when compared with previous measurements. A comparison of the levels of strangeness production in diffractive and non-diffractive DIS is made. An upper limit of $0.9\,$nb, at the $95\%$ confidence level, is placed on the cross-section for QCD instanton induced events.
The Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment is designed to use the LHC to verify the hadronic-interaction models used in cosmic-ray physics. Forward baryon production is one of the crucial points to understand the development of cosmic-ray showers. We report the neutron-energy spectra for LHC $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV proton--proton collisions with the pseudo-rapidity $\eta$ ranging from 8.81 to 8.99, from 8.99 to 9.22, and from 10.76 to infinity. The measured energy spectra obtained from the two independent calorimeters of Arm1 and Arm2 show the same characteristic feature before unfolding the difference in the detector responses. We unfolded the measured spectra by using the multidimensional unfolding method based on Bayesian theory, and the unfolded spectra were compared with current hadronic-interaction models. The QGSJET II-03 model predicts a high neutron production rate at the highest pseudo-rapidity range similar to our results and the DPMJET 3.04 model describes our results well at the lower pseudo-rapidity ranges. However no model perfectly explains the experimental results in the whole pseudo-rapidity range. The experimental data indicate the most abundant neutron production rate relative to the photon production, which does not agree with predictions of the models.
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