Baryon production at very high energies ∼106 GeV

Abstract

Experimental measurements of the charged to neutral ratio for high energy hadrons in extensive air showers of primary energies ∼106 GeV are discussed in relation to the expected values from Monte Carlo simulations. The charged to neutral ratio is sensitive to the baryon content of hadrons in air showers. A large ratio represents dominance of pions while nucleon dominance would result in a ratio close to unity. Experiments show a small charge ratio at high energies indicating the presence of a large number of baryons among the hadrons. These observations suggest that baryon production cross‐section in p‐p collisions, which has been seen to increase by a factor of about 2 from Fermilab energies to CERN—ISR energies, continues to increase with energy. Observed charged to neutral ratio requires that the baryon content of particles produced in the central region in p‐p collisions increases from about 7% at ISR energies to more than about 15% at CERN—pp Collider energies.