Inclusive production of protons, anti-protons, neutrons, deuterons and tritons in p+C collisions at 158 GeV/c beam momentum

Abstract

The production of protons, anti-protons, neutrons, deuterons and tritons in minimum bias p+C interactions is studied using a sample of 385 734 inelastic events obtained with the NA49 detector at the CERN SPS at 158 GeV/c beam momentum. The data cover a phase space area ranging from 0 to 1.9 GeV/c in transverse momentum and in Feynman x from -0.8 to 0.95 for protons, from -0.2 to 0.3 for anti-protons and from 0.1 to 0.95 for neutrons. Existing data in the far backward hemisphere are used to extend the coverage for protons and light nuclear fragments into the region of intra-nuclear cascading. The use of corresponding data sets obtained in hadron-proton collisions with the same detector allows for the detailed analysis and model-independent separation of the three principle components of hadronization in p+C interactions, namely projectile fragmentation, target fragmentation of participant nucleons and intra-nuclear cascading.