Measurement of Hadron Production in $\pi^-$-C Interactions at 158 and 350 GeV/c with NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS

TL;DR

This paper reports precise measurements of various hadron production spectra and cross sections in $ m pim$-C interactions at 158 and 350 GeV/c, providing essential data for modeling cosmic ray air showers.

Contribution

It provides the first high-precision, large phase-space coverage data set of hadron production in $ m pim$-C interactions at these energies, aiding model tuning.

Findings

Double-differential $p$-$p_T$ spectra obtained

Total production cross sections measured

Data serve as a reference for air shower simulations

Abstract

We present a measurement of the momentum spectra of $\pi^\pm$, K$^\pm$, p$^\pm$, $\Lambda$, $\bar{\Lambda}$ and K$^{0}_{S}$ produced in interactions of negatively charged pions with carbon nuclei at beam momenta of 158 and 350 GeV/c. The total production cross sections are measured as well. The data were collected with the large-acceptance spectrometer of the fixed target experiment NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS. The obtained double-differential $p$-$p_T$ spectra provide a unique reference data set with unprecedented precision and large phase-space coverage to tune models used for the simulation of particle production in extensive air showers in which pions are the most numerous projectiles.