A study of transverse and longitudinal momentum correlations in proton diffraction dissociation at 14 GeV/c

Abstract We present data on momentum correlations both in and out of the production plane for the reactions π + p→ π f + ( π + n) and π − p→ π f − ( π − Δ ++ ). The dissociation products show strikingly similar transverse momentum distributions which in terms of exchange models suggest an equal amount of pion and baryon exchange. For both reactions, we find an approximate factorization in the projectile frame between the transverse momentum of π f and the longitudinal momenta of the dissociation products. Exchange models predict this result equally in both reactions, but it appears much more clearly in the Δ reaction. Finally, we relate the observed longitudinal and transverse momentum distributions in a way suggested by an isotropic decay model.