A comprehensive study of the inclusive production of negative pions in p+p collisions for interaction energies from 3 GeV to 13 TeV covering the non-perturbative sector of the Strong Interaction

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive, model-independent analysis of negative pion production in proton-proton collisions across a wide energy range, focusing on non-perturbative aspects and achieving high-precision data interpolation.

Contribution

It offers a dense, systematic interpolation of experimental data on negative pion production, enabling critical tests of energy scaling and production models in the non-perturbative regime.

Findings

Controlled systematic precision better than 5% in data interpolation

Validation of energy scaling and thermal production concepts

Critical assessment of 40 experimental datasets

Abstract

Over the past 60 years a rich sample of experimental results concerning the inclusive production of $\pi^-$ mesons has been obtained spanning a range from about 3 GeV to 13 TeV in interaction energy. This paper attempts a model-independent overview of these results with the aim at obtaining an internally consistent data description on a dense grid over the three inclusive variables transverse momentum, rapidity or Feynman $x_F$ and interaction energy. The study concentrates on the non-perturbative sector of the strong interaction by limiting the transverse momenta to $p_T <$ 1.3 GeV/c. The three-dimensional interpolation which is mandatory and necessary for this aim is shown to provide a controlled systematic precision of better than 5%. This accuracy allows for a critical inspection of each of the 40 experiments concerned in turn. It also allows precision tests of some of the physics concepts developed around inclusive processes like energy scaling, "thermal" production and the evolution of transverse momenta.