Inelasticity for hadron-carbon nucleus collisions from emulsion chamber

Abstract

The inelasticity of hadron-carbon collisions for energies exceeding 100 TeV is estimated from the carbon-emulsion chamber data at Pamirs to be $<K_C> = 0.65\pm 0.08$. When combined with data on hadron-lead collisions taken at the same energy range it results in the $K\sim A^{0.086}$ mass number dependence of inelasticity. The evaluated partial inelasticity for secondary ($\nu > 1$) interactions, $K_{\nu >1} \simeq 0.2$, suggests that most of the energy is lost in the first interaction.