Reactions with leading hadrons in meson-proton interactions at 250 GeV/c

Inelastic final states with one or two leading hadrons are studied in 7r+p and K+p interactions at 250 GeV/c. In reactions with two leading hadrons, the dependence of the average charge multiplicity of associ­ ated pions on their effective mass is essentially consis­ tent with that observed in pp and 7 7 -collisions, but differs from that obtained in e+e"-annihilation. The multiplicity and (semi)inclusive characteristics of the 7r+-induced non- diffractive reactions are compared to predictions of current versions of the FRITIOF fragmentation model. We show that the hard-like sub-processes, essentially responsible for the production of leading hadrons with relatively large trans­ verse momentum as well as for the relatively large multi­ plicity of associated pions, are not properly treated in the model.