THE INELASTICITY OF ENERGETIC NUCLEON-NUCLEUS INTERACTIONS IN Pb AND THE NUCLEON-NUCLEON CROSS-SECTION

An analysis of cloud chamber photographs of nuclear Interactions in lead is presented in an attempt to produce further evidence, of a rather direct kind, for the nature of the most energetic secondary particles and to find a value for the average inelasticity in N-N collisions at above 100 Bev. This value can be derived on the basis of a simple successive-collision model of the N-nucleus interaction if assumptions are made about the N-N meson production cross section and the influence of secondary pi -N collisions on the observational data. An upper limit is deduced for the proportion of K mesons present among the secondary particles. (W.D.M.)