As part of a study of large p T phenomena in photon-proton collisions at the CERN ISR, a search for direct single photon production has been performed. A statistical division of the data sample into the fraction consistent with single photon and the fraction due to multiphoton decays of neutral hadrons is accomplished by measuring the average conversion probability for the sample in a one radiation length thick converter. The fraction of the sample attributable to direct single photon production is 〈 γ /all〉 = 0.074 ± 0.012 for 6 GeV/ c < p T 10 GeV/ c , and 〈 γ /all〉 = 0.26 ± 0.04 for p T > 10 GeV/ c , with an additional systematic uncertainty of ±0.05 for both values.
Direct photon production cross sections obtained in high statistics p ̄ p and pp collisions at s =24.3 GeV at the CERN SPS are used in a next-to-leading order QCD analysis. From the cross section difference σ( p ̄ p → γX)−σ(pp → γX) and quark distributions measured in deep inelastic scattering, a determination of the strong coupling constant, α s , is performed via a measurement of Λ (4) MS . This measurement yields a value Λ (4) MS = 210±22 ( stat. )±44 ( syst. ) +105 −36 ( theo. ) MeV. The corresponding value of α s expressed at M 2 Z is α s (M 2 Z )=0.1112 ±0.0016 ( stat. ) ±0.0033 ( syst. ) +0.0077 −0.0034 ( theo. ) .
We have measured the inclusive cross sections for γ, Ks0, Λ, and Λ¯ production in π+p and pp interactions at 100 GeV/c and compared various inclusive distributions of the produced γ and Ks0.