Production of pizero and eta mesons at large transverse momenta in pp and pBe interactions at 530 and 800 GeV/c

TL;DR

This paper reports measurements of high transverse momentum pizero and eta meson production in proton-proton and proton-beryllium collisions at 530 and 800 GeV/c, comparing results with QCD predictions and phenomenological models.

Contribution

It provides new experimental data on meson production at high transverse momentum in fixed-target collisions and compares these results with theoretical models.

Findings

Inclusive pizero cross sections agree with NLO QCD calculations.

Data supports the validity of the parton-k_T model at high p_T.

Results extend the kinematic range of meson production measurements.

Abstract

We present results on the production of high transverse momentum pizero and eta mesons in pp and pBe interactions at 530 and 800 GeV/c. The data span the kinematic ranges: 1 < p_T < 10 GeV/c in transverse momentum and 1.5 units in rapidity. The inclusive pizero cross sections are compared with next-to-leading order QCD calculations and to expectations based on a phenomenological parton-k_T model.