Measurement of the Charged-Particle Multiplicity in pp Collisions at 102GeVc

Abstract

We present preliminary results from a sample of ∼ 1200 events obtained from an exposure of the 30-in. Argonne National Laboratory—National Accelerator Laboratory liquid-hydrogen bubble chamber to 102-$\frac{\mathrm{GeV}}{c}$ protons. The elastic and total inelastic cross sections are respectively 6.9 ± 1.0 and 32.8 ± 1.1 mb. The parameters of the multiplicity distribution for negative tracks are $〈n_{-}〉=2.17\mathrm{}\pm 0.07$, $D_{-}^{}{}_{}{}^2=〈n_{-}^{}{}_{}{}^2〉-{〈n_{-}〉}^2=2.56\mathrm{}\pm 0.12$, and $f_2^{}{}_{}{}^{-}=D_{-}^{}{}_{}{}^2-〈n_{-}〉=0.39\mathrm{}\pm 0.10$.