Inclusive production of protons, anti-protons and neutrons in p+p collisions at 158 GeV/c beam momentum

TL;DR

This paper presents new measurements of proton, anti-proton, and neutron production in proton-proton collisions at 158 GeV/c, providing detailed cross sections and comparisons with previous experiments across various energy ranges.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive dataset of inclusive baryon production at this energy with detailed kinematic coverage and comparison to existing data, enhancing understanding of baryon production mechanisms.

Findings

Measured inclusive cross sections for protons, anti-protons, and neutrons.

Compared results with previous experiments at SPS, ISR, HERA, and RHIC.

Provided neutron cross sections in specific Feynman x intervals.

Abstract

New data on the production of protons, anti-protons and neutrons in p+p interactions are presented. The data come from a sample of 4.8 million inelastic events obtained with the NA49 detector at the CERN SPS at 158 GeV/c beam momentum. The charged baryons are identified by energy loss measurement in a large TPC tracking system. Neutrons are detected in a forward hadronic calorimeter. Inclusive invariant cross sections are obtained in intervals from 0 to 1.9 GeV/c (0 to 1.5 GeV/c) in transverse momentum and from -0.05 to 0.95 (-0.05 to 0.4) in Feynman x for protons (anti-protons), respectively. pT integrated neutron cross sections are given in the interval from 0.1 to 0.9 in Feynman x. The data are compared to a wide sample of existing results in the SPS and ISR energy ranges as well as to proton and neutron measurements from HERA and RHIC.