A survey of backward proton and pion production in p+C interactions at beam momenta from 1 to 400 GeV/c

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive survey of backward proton and pion production in p+C interactions across a wide range of energies and angles, integrating new and existing data to establish a consistent description of cross sections.

Contribution

It offers the first extensive compilation and analysis of backward hadronic cross sections in p+C interactions from 1 to 400 GeV/c, ensuring internal consistency across multiple data sets.

Findings

Consistent description of backward cross sections across energies and angles.

Identification of smooth dependencies in angular, momentum, and energy distributions.

Validation of data sets through continuity and smoothness constraints.

Abstract

New data on proton and pion production in p+C interactions from the CERN PS and SPS accelerators are used in conjunction with other available data sets to perform a comprehensive survey of backward hadronic cross sections. This survey covers the complete backward hemisphere in the range of lab angles from 10 to 180 degrees, from 0.2 to 1.4 GeV/c in lab momentum and from 1 to 400 GeV/c in projectile momentum. Using the constraints of continuity and smoothness of the angular, momentum and energy dependences a consistent description of the inclusive cross sections is established which allows the control of the internal consistency of the nineteen available data sets.