Inelastic cross sections of nucleons and π mesons in carbon and lead near 100 GeV

Abstract

An experiment to measure the cross section for high-energy cosmic-ray neutrons and charged nuclear-active particle interactions with Pb and C nuclei has been carried out at an altitude of 2 000 m. Large spark chambers were used in a detector which selected neutrons and charged nuclear-active particles in the region of 100 GeV. The results are σπ(nPb) = (1.65 ± 0.17) barn, σπ(nC) = (0.204 ± 0.02) barn, σπ(πPb) = (1.53 ± 0.17) barn, σπ(πC) = (0.168 ± 0.017) barn.