Charged-particle multiplicities in high-energy collisions

Abstract

Fits performed to the energy dependence of inelastic average charged-particle multiplicities in hadron-proton interactions suggest the asymptotic form 1.4ln $s$ (where $s$ is in ${\mathrm{GeV}}^2$), independent of the nature of the incident hadron. Similar fits to data on production of hadrons in $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ annihilations yield the asymptotic dependence 0.7ln $s$.