Evidence for directp p interactions in the fragmentation channelp +? ?p + pX at ?s=88 GeV

Abstract

We have investigated kinematical correlations between the outgoing beam proton and the proton emerging from the fragmentingα-particle inpα collisions at\(\sqrt {s_{p\alpha } } = 88GeV\). Strong correlations are seen, indicating the dominance of quasi-elasticpp scattering in the fragmentation channelp+α→p+pX, for the ¦t¦ range 0.05–1.00 (GeV/c)2. A Monte Carlo simulation of this process can explain the observed correlation spectra assuming an admixture of about 16% spectator protons.