Space-Time Structure of Hadronic Collisions and Nuclear Multiple Production

Abstract

Nuclear interactions at high energy are sensitive to the space-time structure of basic hadronic collisions. A model of this structure is proposed; it provides a parameter-free account of National Accelerator Laboratory and cosmic-ray emulsion data, which shows that the multiplicity of mesons produced in nuclei exceeds that in hydrogen by an energy-independent ratio remarkably close to unity.