On the Factorial Moment Analysis of High Energy Experimental Data with Non-integer Partition Number

Abstract

It is pointed out that in doing the factorial moment analysis with non-integer partition $M$ of phase space, the influence of the phase-space variation of two- (or more-) particle correlations has to be considered carefully. In this paper this problem is studied and a systematic method is developed to minimize this influence. The efficiency and self-consistency of this method are shown using the data of 250 GeV/$c$ $\pi^+$p and K$^+$p collisions from the NA22 experiment as example.