STRONG INTERACTIONS AT VERY HIGH ENERGY

Abstract

During recent years, studies of strong interactions at high-energy levels underwent several changes. Experiments were carried out at 1 to 3 x 10/ sup 10/ ev with accelerators and even beyond 10/sup 11/ ev with cosmic rays. Among the theories developed, the theory of complex orbital moments or the Regge pole theory and the more rigorous one-meson approximation are considered; the latter represents a more sophisticated version of the Weizsacker-Williams theory. Some of the main conclusions of the Regge pole theory were confirmed by proton- proton (p-p) scattering experiments carried out in the 10- to 20-Bev range. Although at one time the theory was viewed as having general validity in view of these experiments, more-recent studies indicated that this is not the case; results of pi /sup -/-p interaction experiment carried out after the p-p scattering tests, did not bear out the predictions of the theory. The one-meson approximation method is not applicable to all phenomena but was developed gradually to cover a limited set of experimental facts. Current work is directed toward establishing a connection between elastic and inelastic processes in the field of high-energy interactions. Considerable attention is devoted to the experiments with cosmic rays. Data are availablemore » in the 10/sup 11/ to 10/sup 13/ ev range and experiments are being carried up to the 10/sup 16/ ev level. It was concluded that data on the interaction of high-energy particles cannot be explained on the basis of a single theory. (Review article, 127 refs.) (TTT)« less