Multiplicity distributions in neutrino-hydrogen interactions

Abstract Multiplicity distributions of charged hadrons produced in νp interactions are studied using a sample of 7850 charged current interactions in BEBC. Multiplicity moments are studied as functions of the invariant mass of the hadronic system, W , and a comparison is made with other lepton- and hadron-induced reactions. The mean charged multiplicity 〈 n ch 〉 is found to increase linearly with ln W 2 . The other multiplicity moments indicate a close similarity between the neutrino scattering and the class of annihilation processes. A study of the multiplicity distributions in the forward and backward directions in the hadronic c.m.s. gives results in qualitative agreement with the quark parton model.