Interpretation of Highly Intelastic Proton-Proton Interactions at 10, 20, and 30 BeV/c

Abstract

A phenomenological analysis of the proton spectra resulting from inelastic proton-proton interactions is presented which suggests the existence of a bremsstrahlung-type process of pion production for highly inelastic collisions. A relation $\overline{n}=\frac{{{p}_{0}}^{*}{sin\ensuremath{\theta}}^{*}}{0.4}$ is found between the implied average number of produced pions $\overline{n}$, the c.m. angle of scatter of the proton ${\ensuremath{\theta}}^{*}$, and the c.m. incident-proton momentum ${{p}_{0}}^{*}$. A simple expression for the differential cross section for secondary protons yields excellent agreement with data over a wide range of angle, momenta, and incident-proton momenta.