Multihadron production in high-energy interactions and intermittency

Abstract

Nonstatistical multiplicity fluctuations in narrow pseudorapidity intervals have been studied in the pionization process of ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{-}\frac{\mathrm{Ag}}{\mathrm{Br}}$ and $p\ensuremath{-}\frac{\mathrm{Ag}}{\mathrm{Br}}$ interaction data at 350 GeV/c and 400 GeV/c, respectively, in terms of scaled factorial moments. An intermittent pattern of fluctuations is evident for pionization processes in both cases. An investigation of anomalous fractal dimensions suggests a cascading mechanism for the multihadron production process. A further analysis of the data in terms of a scaling law for a different order of the moments has been done. The results support the proposed scaling behavior. We have also probed the emission process of the medium energy target-fragmented protons with the same tool. Interestingly, this study reveals similar behavior.