Eur. Phys. J. C (2013) 73: 2329
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-013-2329-6

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

A survey of backward proton and pion production in p + C interactions at beam momenta from 1 to 400 GeV/c

¹ Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
² H. Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Cracow, Poland
³ CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
⁴ Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Institute of Particle and Nuclear Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
⁵ Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria

^* e-mail: Siegfried.Wenig@cern.ch

Received: 24 October 2012
Revised: 4 February 2013
Published online: 8 March 2013

Abstract

Recent data on proton and pion production in p+C interactions from the CERN PS and SPS accelerators are used in conjunction with other available data sets to perform a comprehensive survey of backward hadronic cross sections. This survey covers the complete backward hemisphere in the range of lab angles from 10 to 180 degrees, from 0.2 to 1.4 GeV/c in lab momentum and from 1 to 400 GeV/c in projectile momentum. Using the constraints of continuity and smoothness of the angular, momentum and energy dependences a consistent description of the inclusive cross sections is established which allows the control of the internal consistency of the nineteen available data sets.