New results from the NA49 experiment on hadron production in p+p and p+C interactions and survey of backward hadrons in p+C collisions

Abstract

Recent results on proton, anti-proton, neutron and charged kaon production in proton-proton and proton, anti-proton, neutron, deuteron and triton production in proton-carbon collisions at 158 GeV/c beam momentum are presented. Data samples of 4.8 million and 385 734 inelastic events in p+p and p+C, respectively, are obtained with the NA49 detector at the CERN SPS accelerator. The charged particles are identified by energy loss measurement in a system of four TPC chambers, while the neutrons are detected in a forward hadronic calorimeter. The data cover a major fraction of the phase space, ranging from 0 to 1.9 GeV in pT and in Feynman x variable from -0.8 to 0.95 for protons, from -0.2 to 0.3 for anti-protons, from 0.1 to 0.95 for neutrons and from 0 to 0.5 for kaons. The comparison of the results on proton and neutron production in p+p interactions and deep inelastic e+p collisions at HERA reveals an independence of target fragmentation on the projectile type. Using the charged kaon data in p+p collisions as a reference, a new evaluation of the energy dependence of kaon production, including neutral kaons, is conducted over a range from 3 GeV to p+p− collider energies. A survey of backward production of protons and pions in p+C collisions in the range of lab angles from 10 to 180 degrees, from 0.2 to 1.2 GeV/c in lab momentum and from 1 to 400 GeV/c in projectile momentum has been performed.