Correlations of secondary protons in p /sup 20/Ne interactions at 300 GeV/c

We present experimental data on observation of two-proton correlations in pNe interactions at a primary momentum 300 GeV/c. We have investigated for the first time the dependence of the two-proton correlation function on the momenta of the secondary protons and have observed an enhancement of the correlations with increase of the proton momenta. This result, which has been confirmed also in the case of ..pi../sup -1//sup ///sup 2/C interactions at 40 GeV/c, serves as an indication that the region of emission of energetic protons has a characteristic size substantially less than the radius of the target nucleus. An analysis was also made of the shape of the proton emission region, of the associative multiplicities, and of three-proton correlations.