Multiplicity of charged particles in π−-carbon interactions from 4 to 40 GeV/c

Abstract We have measured the multiplicities of secondary charged particles produced in the collisions of π − mesons with carbon nuclei at momenta of 4.0, 5.0, 7.5 and 40.0 GeV/ c . The distribution of the number of visible protons does not change with the primary energy. There is observed an anomaly around n S = 3–4 for the multiplicity distribution of shower particles at 40 GeV/ c . Both the average multiplicities of shower and negative particles increase logarithmically with the momentum of the primary π − meson. The multiplicity of secondaries obeys KNO scaling. There are correlations, increasing with energy, between average multiplicities of charged fast particles and the number of slow protons. The presented experimental data are analyzed in the framework of new models proposed for inelastic hadron-nucleus collisions.