PARTICLE PRODUCTION IN NUCLEI AND UNSTABLE PARTICLE CROSS SECTIONS

We present a theory of coherent and incoherent production of particles in medium and heavy nuclei at very high energies where threshold effects are negligible. The modification necessary for coherent production at lower energies (of the order of a few GeV or less) is made. Both coherent and incoherent production are sensitive to the total cross section for the produced particle on the nucleon. Tables are given of the effective nucleon numbers" involved in production. These are useful in the determination of the cross section of the produced particle on a nucleon. This study offers the possibility for determining the cross sections of virtually all unstable particles or resonances. Detailed angular distribution calculations are presented for the case of photoproduction of ρ{variant}O mesons. A determination of the ρ{variant}O-nucleon total cross section is made by comparison with existing data. © 1968."