The charged-particle multiplicity distribution from 250-GeV/c π−p interactions in the Fermilab 15-ft bubble chamber is presented. The corrections to the raw data are described. Fits to these data along with other high-energy bubble-chamber data show that cluster models with two components—a low-multiplicity, diffractive component and a high-multiplicity, nondiffractive component—describe the data fairly well. The charged multiplicity of each cluster is found to be ∼2, while the number of clusters for each component grows linearly with ln(s). The multiplicity moments are consistent with other experiments. We find 〈nc〉=8.427±0.059, f2cc=8.66±0.11, 〈nc〉D=2.038±0.023. The total inelastic cross section is σI=21.42±0.50 mb.
Results are reported concerning the charged-particle multiplicity distribution obtained in an exposure of the high-resolution hydrogen bubble chamber LEBC to a beam of 800 GeV protons at the Fermilab MPS. This is the first time that such data have been available at this energy. The distribution of the number n ch of charged particles produced in inelastic interactions obeys KNO-scaling. The average multiplicity is 〈 n ch 〉 = 10.26±0.15. For n ch ⩾8 the data can be well fitted to a negative binomial. The difference between the overall experimental multiplicity distribution and that resulting from the latter fit is in agreement with the contribution expected from diffractive processes.
We report on the interactions of an incident 200 GeV / c beam composed of 33% protons, 16% kaons, and 48% pions on targets of silver and gold mounted in the Fermilab 30″ bubble chamber. Within our limited statistics, we find the total cross sections and average multiplicities to agree with previously published data. We find the KNO scaling distribution curve to be broader for heavy nuclei than for hydrogen. We present the first data for V 0 production on gold and silver. We also present, for the first time, evidence for a positive charge excess among the sample of relativistic tracks from interactions on gold and silver. We observe a trend where the positive charge excess increases with target atomic number and with increasing charged particle multiplicity. We find the charge excess to exist among the sample of particles having greater than 2 GeV / c momentum and to persist in the sample with momentum greater than 4 GeV / c .