In a 35 000-picture exposure of the 30-in. hydrogen bubble chamber to a 300-GeV/c proton beam at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, 10054 interactions have been observed. The measured total cross section is $40.68 \pm 0.55$ mb, the elastic cross section is $7.89 \pm 0.52$ mb, and the average charged-particle multiplicity for inelastic events is $8.S0 \pm 0.12$.
We have measured the differential cross section for small angle p−p scattering from 25 to 200 GeV incident energy and in the momentum transfer range 0.015<|t|<0.080 (GeVc)2. We find that the slope of the forward diffraction peak, b(s), increases with energy and can be fitted by the form b(s)=b0+2α′ lns, where b0=8.3±1.3 and α′=0.28±0.13 (GeVc)−2. Such dependence is compatible with the data existing both at higher and lower energies. We have also obtained the energy dependence of the p−p total cross section in the energy range from 48 to 196 GeV. Within our errors which are ± 1.1 mb the total cross section remains constant.
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.