250-GeV/cπ−pmultiplicity distributions and the two-component model

Abstract

The charged-particle multiplicity distribution from 250-GeV/c ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}p$ 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 \ensuremath{\sim}2, while the number of clusters for each component grows linearly with $\mathrm{ln}(s)$. The multiplicity moments are consistent with other experiments. We find $〈{n}_{c}〉=8.427\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.059$, ${f}_{2}^{\mathrm{cc}}=8.66\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.11$, $\frac{〈{n}_{c}〉}{D}=2.038\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.023$. The total inelastic cross section is ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{I}=21.42\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.50$ mb.