Neutron-proton differential cross sections in the range 70 to 400 GeV/c

Abstract

We report the results of an experiment which measured np elastic scattering differential cross sections over a range in-t from 0.15 to-3.6 (GeV/c) 2 for incident neutron momenta from 70 to 400 GeV/c. We find the logarithmic slope parameter, evaluated at-t = 0.2 (GeV/c) 2, to be consistent with existing proton-proton parametrizations. The data exhibit a dip in the cross section near-t = 1.4 (GeV/c) 2 for incident neutron momenta above 200 GeV/c. For neutron momenta less than 280 GeV/c, the neutron-proton cross sections are found to be higher than existing proton-proton data in the range 0.7-t ~ 1.3 (GeV/c) 2 which is in contradiction to most Regge predictions.