Dependence of multiplicity on primary energy in nucleon-nucleon and pion-nucleon collisions

Abstract

The available experimental data on N---N and π -N interactions have been examined to ascertain the dependence of multiplicity on primary energy. It is found that the average multiplicity of the charged created particles increases about as the square root of the primary energy in the region of about 6 GeV to 50 GeV and then progressively slower till it attains a constant value at high energies; this value is 16±3 at 2-10 TeV for N- collisions and 10±2 at 0.2-1 TeV for π ---N collisions. These observations indicate that at high energies the average multiplicity reaches a kind of saturation. This analysis leads to the interesting result that in N---N collisions, the average total energy per created particle in the centre of momentum system is almost constant in the energy region ≾ 100 GeV but at high energies increases rapidly about as E^N_N.