This paper presents measurements of the production of Ds- mesons relative to Ds+ mesons as functions of x_F and square of p_t for a sample of 2445 Ds decays to phi pi. The Ds mesons were produced in Fermilab experiment E791 with 500 GeV/c pi- mesons incident on one platinum and four carbon foil targets. The acceptance-corrected integrated asymmetry in the x_F range -0.1 to 0.5 for Ds+- mesons is 0.032 +- 0.022 +- 0.022, consistent with no net asymmetry. The results, as functions of x_F and square of p_t, are compared to predictions and to the large production asymmetry observed for D+- mesons in the same experiment. These comparisons support the hypothesis that production asymmetries come from the fragmentation process and not from the charm quark production itself.
We have measured cross sections for forward neutron production from a variety of targets using proton beams from the Fermilab Main Injector. Measurements were performed for proton beam momenta of 58 GeV/c, 84 GeV/c, and 120 GeV/c. The cross section dependence on the atomic weight (A) of the targets was found to vary as $A^(alpha)$ where $\alpha$ is $0.46\pm0.06$ for a beam momentum of 58 GeV/c and 0.54$\pm$0.05 for 120 GeV/c. The cross sections show reasonable agreement with FLUKA and DPMJET Monte Carlos. Comparisons have also been made with the LAQGSM Monte Carlo.
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