A Study of Some Available Differential Particle Data from Nucleon-Nucleon Collisions at High Energy

Abstract

Differential particle production of nucleons, pions, and kaons from high-energy nucleon-nucleon collisions is studied for use in the intranuclear-cascade model of nuclear reactions. Conservation of momentum and conservation of energy in such collisions are considered. Using available fits to the invariant inclusive cross section and to average multiplicities for proton-proton collisions at center-of-momentum energies of approximately 3 GeV and above, the total final energy in the c.m. frame is calculated and compared to the original total c.m. energy. From this, a factor by which the multiplicity of pions and kaons must be multiplied in order to achieve energy conservation is determined. The extension of these calculations to all nucleon-nucleon collisions is also discussed.