Eur. Phys. J. C (2009) 63: 549-609
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-009-1114-z

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Cross sections of large-angle hadron production in proton– and pion–nucleus interactions III: tantalum nuclei and beam momenta from ±3 GeV/c to ±15 GeV/c

¹ Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia
³ CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
⁴ Politecnico di Milano and INFN, Sezione di Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
⁵ Institute of High Energy Physics, Protvino, Russia

^* e-mail: joerg.wotschack@cern.ch

Received: 2 June 2009
Revised: 10 July 2009
Published online: 27 August 2009

Abstract

We report on double-differential inclusive cross sections of the production of secondary protons, charged pions, and deuterons, in the interactions with a 5% λ _abs thick stationary tantalum target, of proton and pion beams with momentum from ±3 GeV/c to ±15 GeV/c. Results are given for secondary particles with production angles 20°<θ<125°. They are of particular relevance for the optimization of the design parameters of the proton driver of a neutrino factory.