Inclusive pion and eta production in p+Nb collisions at 3.5 GeV beam energy

TL;DR

This study reports measurements of neutral pion and eta meson production in proton-niobium collisions at 3.5 GeV, using the HADES spectrometer, providing new data and comparing results with transport models.

Contribution

It offers new experimental data on neutral meson production in p+Nb collisions at 3.5 GeV, filling a gap in existing measurements for this energy range.

Findings

Transport models reproduce pion and eta production fairly well.

Transverse-momentum and rapidity distributions are consistent with model predictions.

Provides valuable data for understanding meson production in proton-nucleus interactions.

Abstract

Data on inclusive pion and eta production measured with the dielectron spectrometer HADES in the reaction p+93Nb at a kinetic beam energy of 3.5 GeV are presented. Our results, obtained with the photon conversion method, supplement the rather sparse information on neutral meson production in proton-nucleus reactions existing for this bombarding energy regime. The reconstructed e+e-e+e- transverse-momentum and rapidity distributions are confronted with transport model calculations, which account fairly well for both pi0 and eta production.