Hadron production in proton-proton interactions at medium energies

Abstract

Hadron production in proton-proton interactions is described in the framework of a collision model, which aims at describing simultaneously all reaction channels in a wide energy region. An empirical matrix element based on the present knowledge of the partonic structure of hadrons is combined with the concept of intermediate subsystems and the calculation of modified statistical weights of the various final states. It is demonstrated that the energy dependence of total cross sections between threshold and about 50 GeV incident energy can be satisfactorily reproduced. This is the basis for considering theoretical and experimental problems ofK−, η andη′ production in more detail.