Pion production by protons on a thin beryllium target at 6.4, 12.3, and 17.5 GeV/$c$ incident proton momenta

An analysis of inclusive pion production in proton-beryllium collisions at 6.4, 12.3, and 17.5 GeV/$c$ proton beam momentum has been performed. The data were taken by Experiment 910 at the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. The differential ${\pi }^{+}$ and ${\pi }^{-}$ production cross sections ($d^2\sigma /\mathit{dpd}\Omega$) were measured up to 400 mrad in ${\theta }_{\pi }$ and up to 6 GeV/$c$ in $p_{\pi }$. The measured cross section was fit with a Sanford-Wang parametrization.

Figure 1

The beam trigger counters and bullseye counter. The shaded area on the bullseye defines the beam veto region. A hit in this region indicates that the event is consistent with a noninteracting beam particle.

Figure 2

The E910 spectrometer layout.

Figure 3

Inclusive p-Be ${\pi }^{+}$ production cross section data and fits vs ${\pi }^{+}$ momentum, at 6.4 GeV/$c$ incident proton momentum. Fits are defined in Table .

Figure 4

Inclusive p-Be ${\pi }^{-}$ production cross section data and fits vs ${\pi }^{-}$ momentum, at 6.4 GeV/$c$ incident proton momentum. Fits are defined in Table .

Figure 5

Inclusive p-Be ${\pi }^{+}$ production cross section data and fits vs ${\pi }^{+}$ momentum, at 12.3 GeV/$c$ incident proton momentum. Fits are defined in Table .

Figure 6

Inclusive p-Be ${\pi }^{-}$ production cross section data and fits vs ${\pi }^{-}$ momentum, at 12.3 GeV/$c$ incident proton momentum. Fits are defined in Table .

Figure 7

Inclusive p-Be ${\pi }^{+}$ production cross section data and fits vs ${\pi }^{+}$ momentum, at 17.5 GeV/$c$ incident proton momentum. Fits are defined in Table .

Figure 8

Inclusive p-Be ${\pi }^{-}$ production cross section data and fits vs ${\pi }^{-}$ momentum, at 17.5 GeV/$c$ incident proton momentum. Fits are defined in Table .