A High Energy Proton-Proton Collision with Associated Events

Abstract

An event observed in a nuclear emulsion is interpreted as an incident proton of energy 1000 Bev colliding with a hydrogen nucleus and producing a cone of six charged mesons. The presence of three neutral mesons is deduced from two electron pairs and one triplet in the region of the cone. The triplet is due to an electron pair produced by a gamma-ray of energy 24 Bev in the field of an electron. An additional electron pair is produced by bremsstrahlung. The kinetic energies of several particles are deduced from scattering measurements and these range from 800 Mev to 17 Bev. The total energy of the shower is estimated as 100 Bev. In the center-of-mass system the mesons have energies of the order of 400 Mev and an almost isotropic distribution. It is concluded that most of the energy is carried by two neutrons, and only one-tenth of the energy of the primary particle goes to meson production. The results are compared with the theories of multiple meson production.