The Production of Mesons by Protons on Deuterons

Abstract

An attempt is made to predict the energy and angular distribution of charged mesons to be expected from the bombardment of deuterium by 345-Mev protons assuming that the cross section for production in two-nucleon collisions is known. The problem is simplified by assuming that the third particle enters the reaction only by giving to the struck particle a momentum distribution at some time prior to the meson production, by carrying off the complementary momentum, and by limiting the states available through the exclusion principle. The possibility of the reformation of a deuteron more than doubles the cross section for the production of positive if it occurs. Hence the positive-negative ratio offers an experimental means of determining the spin dependence of positive meson production in the final state, assuming that the ratio of $p-n$ to $p-p$ production is known. Alternatively, this approach offers a method for a rough determination of the $p-n$ meson production cross section using high energy proton beams.