Bound on the average multiplicity of pions in p-p collision at superhigh energy

Abstract

ANTINUCCI et al. have shown that the multiplicity of secondary charged particles (nch) in proton-proton collision at the CERN ISR energies (s ~4-103 (GeV) 2) is increasing logarithmically with incident energy (1). The experimental data up to higher cosmicray energies, however, were usually fitted with e lns and/or c's ~ (~ ~ 88 (2), and there has been no decisive discussion on the energy dependence of <n~a) in the energy region s~104 (GeV) ~. In this short note we study the problem whether the dependence of the average mult ipl ici ty of pions on energy is logarithmic or a power law in the energy region ( s r 106 (GeV) 2) where the mult ipl ici ty can be measured at present. In the preceding paper (3), assuming that the single-particle distribution function of the inclusive reaction p + p + c + anything, (Ed3(~/dpa)/(~,., never exceeds a constant independent of x( = 2p~ ..... /v/s-), Pr and s, we have obtained at high energy