Elastic scattering, pion production, and annihilation into pions in antiproton-proton interactions at 5.7 GeV/c

Abstract

An extensive investigation of antiproton-proton interactions at 5.7 GeV/c without strange-particle production was carried out using a hydrogen bubble chamber. Cross-sections for different channels are given and discussed. The reliability of the analysis was checked using artificially generated events. The cross-sections for elastic scattering, for all processes involving annihilation, and for all other inelastic processes are respectively σel=(16.3±0.6)mb,σannlbil=(22.5±2.0)mb, σinel=(24.8±2.0)mb. TheN*1:38 is present both in the single and multiple pion production channels. For the reactionOpen image in new window a cross-section of (1.05±0.21) mb was obtained. Cross-sections forN*1238 production in other channels are also given. Some indication of the presence ofI=1/2 isobars was found in the nucleon-pion and the nucleon-two-pion systems. The inelastic nonannihilation reactions were found to be strongly peripheral. The one-pion exchange model including either a form factor or corrections for absorption was applied to the reactionOpen image in new window. Neither version of the model could correctly account for all features of the reaction. The average number of pions in the annihilation was found to be 7.3±0.6. The presence of an asymmetry in the angular distribution of the charged pions was confirmed at this energy; it is due mostly to high-energy pions. The production of ρ and ω mesons was observed in various annihilation channels. Rates of up to 80% for ρ production and up to 15% for ω production were obtained by fitting phase-space and Breit-Wigner curves to the effective-mass distributions of different channels.