Experimental Study of Low-ptHadron Fragmentation

Abstract

We present high-statistics results on the reactions $a+p\to c+X$ where $a$ and $c$ can be any of ${\pi }^{\pm }$, $K^{\pm }$, $p$, or $\overline{p}$. The data were taken at 100 and 175 GeV/c incident momenta using the Fermilab Single-Arm Spectrometer operated over the kinematic range $0.2<x<\mathrm{}1.0\mathrm{}$ and $p_t<~1.0$ GeV/c. Investigating the $x$ dependence of the data, we find agreement with a quark-parton picture, namely the cross sections have a power-law behavior in $1-x$ independent of $p_{\mathrm{beam}}$ and $p_t$.