Comparison of some properties of charged pions in p12C and n12C collisions at 4.2 GeV/c

Abstract

The new experimental data on various properties of the secondary charged pions produced in n12C collisions at 4.2 GeV/c are presented. A comparative analysis of the average multiplicities and various kinematic properties of the charged pions produced in n12C and p12C collisions at 4.2 GeV/cis is made. The experimental data are compared systematically with the predictions of the modified FRITIOF model. It is found that the modified FRITIOF model overestimates the average multiplicities of the charged pions in n12C (p12C) collisions at 4.2 GeV/c compared to the experiment. It is shown that this is due to the fact that the model overestimates the contribution of the intranuclear cascade processes in production of pions in the target fragmentation region compared to the experiment. It is also found that the model underestimates the multiplicity of the charged pions in the projectile fragmentation region. It is shown that this is due to the fact that the model underestimates the contribution of Δ resonances decays to the generation of the fast charged pions in the analyzed collisions.

Keywords

• neutron-carbon collisions
• proton-carbon collisions
• intermediate energies
• pion production
• average multiplicities
• total and transverse momentum distributions