Measurements of cross sections and charged pion spectra in proton-carbon interactions at 31 GeV/c

N Abgrall,T Kobayashi,A Korzenev,A Bravar,K Kadija,M Ravonel,A Bubak,A Fulop,W Dominik,J Dumarchez,E Skrzypczak,M Shibata,T Cetner,D Kolev,M Gaździcki,T Palczewski,W Zipper,A Marcinek,A Ivashkin,M Szuba,A Rubbia,M Roth,O Petukhov,A Blondel,A Grzeszczuk,M Unger,H Ströbele,A Meregaglia,P Chung,P Christakoglou,O Busygina,R Lacey,A Taranenko,A Robert,T Nakadaira,M Messina,Z Majka,R Renfordt,A Wojtaszek,R Engel,B Baatar,R Płaneta,T Sekiguchi,A Marchionni,W Peryt,T Hasegawa,A Kurepin,S Kuleshov,B Rossi,O Kochebina,K Sakashita,G L Melkumov,M Kirejczyk,G Stefanek,K Grebieszkow,T Matulewicz,Z Włodarczyk,X Garrido,J Brzychczyk,K Nishikawa,P Seyboth,P Staszel,E Rondio,R Tsenov,N Katryńska,R Ulrich,S Puławski,C Strabel,V Matveev,A Sadovsky,J Kisiel,T Czopowicz,A Ferrero,S Di Luise,W Rauch,M Posiadała,L S Esposito,S Kowalski,M Słodkowski,J Argyriades,M Rybczyński,M Tada,H Hakobyan,P Szaflik,G Vesztergombi,A Wilczek,N Davis,A Aduszkiewicz,D Kiełczewska,M Golubeva,F Guber,S Murphy,A Ereditato,V Marin,Z Fodor,M Vassiliou,D Röhrich,J Pluta,J Łagoda ,A S Kapoyannis ,J Steṕaniak ,A Malakhov ,M Bogusz ,L Boldizsár ,N G Antoniou ,V Vechernin ,G Pálla ,W K Brooks ,A Sissakian ,J Yi ,K Choi ,S Mrówczyński ,В И Колесников ,D P Kikoła ,J H Kim ,П А Науменко ,F Κ Diakonos ,J Blümer ,A Ivanov ,S N Igolkin ,Alexander Sorin ,V Lyubushkin ,Bernard Andrieu ,M Maćkowiak ,Б Popov ,Yu M Ivanov ,I K Yoo ,Ioana Codrina Maris ,Г Феофилов ,A Asryan ,Á László ,S.a Bunyatov ,T Šuša ,V Kondratiev ,T Antičić ,A Panagiotou

doi:10.1103/physrevc.84.034604

Abstract

Interaction cross sections and charged pion spectra in p+C interactions at 31 GeV/c were measured with the large acceptance NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN SPS. These data are required to improve predictions of the neutrino flux for the T2K long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment in Japan. A set of data collected during the first NA61/SHINE run in 2007 with an isotropic graphite target with a thickness of 4% of a nuclear interaction length was used for the analysis. The measured p+C inelastic and production cross sections are 257.2 +- 1.9 +- 8.9 mb and 229.3 +- 1.9 +- 9.0 mb, respectively. Inclusive production cross sections for negatively and positively charged pions are presented as a function of laboratory momentum in 10 intervals of the laboratory polar angle covering the range from 0 up to 420 mrad. The spectra are compared with predictions of several hadron production models.

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