Measurement of direct-photon production at the Fermilab Tevatron fixed target energies

Abstract

Measurements of the production of high transverse momentum direct photons by a $515\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}/c$ ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ beam and 530 and $800\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}/c$ proton beams in interactions with beryllium and hydrogen targets are presented. The data span the kinematic ranges of $3.5<{p}_{T}<12\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}/c$ in transverse momentum and 1.5 units in rapidity. The inclusive direct-photon cross sections are compared with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations and expectations based on a phenomenological parton-${k}_{T}$ model.