Multiple scattering effects in proton-nucleus collisions and the behavior of the total and partial inelasticities

Abstract

A modified version of a multiple scattering model is applied to describe nuclear inclusive reactions of the type pA→pX and investigate the behavior of the inelasticity in nuclear processes. The modifications are such that some recent developments in the Pomeron physics are incorporated into the new theoretical scheme. The particular attention paid to the diffractive region of the spectrum results in a very good description of the diffractive cross section in terms of the atomic mass. Another important outcome resulting from this analysis is the average total inelasticity whose atomic mass and energy dependences are shown to be in agreement with the available data. Moreover, the behavior of partial inelasticities in intranuclear collisions is also discussed. ͓S0556-2813͑99͒00907-3͔

Behavior of the diffractive cross section in hadron-nucleus collisions

“…The nuclear densities applied here are the same as those used in [3] and respect the normalization condition d 3 r ρ A (r) = 1. For light nuclei (6 ≤ A ≤ 18) they follow the expression 1 1 We notice that a factor 1/A is missing in the parametrization corresponding to Eq.…”

“…In order to calculate the inelastic cross sections σ hp inel appearing in Eq. ( 12), we introduce the following parametrizations (already in milibarns) which are based on Regge phenomenology: ) is generated by a recurrence formula that starts with the assumption (see [3] for details)…”

“…A comparison of the model outlined above with cross section data has already been presented in Ref. [3] for the case of pA → pX with a slightly different parametrization. Here we show in Fig.…”

“…In a recent paper [3], two of us have presented an analysis of the proton inclusive spectrum obtained in protonnucleus collisions based on a multiple scattering formalism. In such an analysis, particular attention was payed to the diffractive component of the inelastic cross section pA resulting in a quite good description of the experimental data of the HELIOS Collaboration.…”

“…In practice, not all terms need to be calculated in order to obtain a quite good description of the data (see[3]). …”