Production of mesons and the localization of field energy

Abstract

It is shown that the production of mesons and nucleons in very energetic nucleon-nucleon collisions depends essentially on the extent to which the observed rest mass of a nucleon is due to its meson field and the spatial distribution of the energy in this field. The production of showers of mesons and nucleons is considered, assuming that a fraction of the observed rest mass of the nucleon is carried by the field, this rest mass being distributed according to some arbitrary function f of distance from the centre of the nucleon. The remaining fraction of the rest mass is assumed to be concentrated in a sphere of radius zeta round the centre of the nucleon, this radius being of the order of the Compton wave-length of the nucleon or less. It is shown how the experimental study of meson nucleon production in high-energy encounters provides a method of obtaining information on the contribution of the meson field to the rest mass of a nucleon, and the localization of this energy in the meson field.