Experimental study of the<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>A</mml:mi></mml:math>dependence of inclusive hadron fragmentation

Abstract

Data are presented on the inclusive production of ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$, ${K}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$, $p$, and $\overline{p}$ for ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{+}$, ${K}^{+}$, and protons incident on nuclear targets at 100 GeV. The results cover the kinematic range $30\ensuremath{\le}P\ensuremath{\le}88$ GeV/c for ${P}_{t}=0.3 \mathrm{and} 0.5$ GeV/c. The observed $A$ dependence of the invariant cross sections exhibits remarkable simplicity, which does not naturally follow from current models of particle production. The results show that the hypothesis of limiting fragmentation can be extended to include collisions with nuclei.