A study of 205-GeV/c π−p interactions has been made with a 48 800-picture exposure in the bare Fermilab 30-inch hydrogen bubble chamber. The average number of charged particles produced per inelastic interaction is 7.99±0.06. The elastic cross section is 3.18±0.13 mb and the total cross section is 24.19±0.44 mb. The inclusive cross sections for neutral-particle production are: σ(γ)=171.3±15.3 mb, σ(KS0)=3.64±0.61 mb (x<0.3), σ(Λ)=1.71±0.34 mb (x<0.3), and σ(Λ¯)=0.59±0.23 mb (x<0.1). The average number of π0's produced per inelastic collision is consistent with a linear rise with the number of charged particles, and about equal to the number of produced π− or π+. The average number of K0's, Λ's, and Λ¯'s is consistent with very little dependence on the number of charged particles. General characteristics of neutral-particle production are presented and compared with other experiments. For each topology the produced neutral energy is ∼13 of the incident energy.
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.
Forum