Forward production of charged pions with incident $\pi^{\pm}$ on nuclear targets measured at the CERN PS

TL;DR

This paper reports the first systematic measurements of forward charged pion production cross-sections from various nuclear targets using the CERN PS, providing valuable data for modeling hadron interactions.

Contribution

It presents new experimental data on pion production cross-sections in the forward direction for multiple nuclear targets, filling a gap in hadron production measurements.

Findings

Data covers pion momenta 0.5-8.0 GeV/c and angles 0.025-0.25 rad.

Results include double-differential cross-sections at four incident beam energies.

Comparison with GEANT4 and MARS simulations shows discrepancies.

Abstract

Measurements of the double-differential $\pi^{\pm}$ production cross-section in the range of momentum $0.5 \GeVc \leq p \le 8.0 \GeVc$ and angle $0.025 \rad \leq \theta \le 0.25 \rad$ in interactions of charged pions on beryllium, carbon, aluminium, copper, tin, tantalum and lead are presented. These data represent the first experimental campaign to systematically measure forward pion hadroproduction. The data were taken with the large acceptance HARP detector in the T9 beam line of the CERN PS. Incident particles, impinging on a 5% nuclear interaction length target, were identified by an elaborate system of beam detectors. The tracking and identification of the produced particles was performed using the forward spectrometer of the HARP detector. Results are obtained for the double-differential cross-sections $ {{\mathrm{d}^2 \sigma}}/{{\mathrm{d}p\mathrm{d}\Omega}} $ mainly at four incident pion beam momenta (3 \GeVc, 5 \GeVc, 8 \GeVc and 12 \GeVc). The measurements are compared with the GEANT4 and MARS Monte Carlo simulation