TOTAL NEUTRON-PROTON INTERACTION CROSS SECTION AT 5.5 Gev

Polyethylene and carbon targets 48.53 and 42.58 g/cm/sup 2/ thick were bombarded with up to 6.5-Bev protons. The energy spectrum of detected neutrons was limited by tue proton energy maximum and by tue threshold of the discriminator operation. The total cross section for the neutron-proton interaction at 5.5 Bev was found to be (41.2 plus or minus 1.7) mb. (R.E.U.)