Measurement of Hadron Production in \(\pi^-\)-C Interactions at 158 and 350 GeV/c with NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS

Abstract

We present a measurement of the momentum spectra of \(\pi^\pm\), K\(^\pm\), p\(^\pm\), \(\Lambda\), \(\bar{\Lambda}\) and K\(^{0}_{S}\) produced in interactions of negatively charged pions with carbon nuclei at beam momenta of 158 and 350 GeV/c. The total production cross sections are measured as well. The data were collected with the large-acceptance spectrometer of the fixed target experiment NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS. The obtained double-differential \(p\)-\(p_T\) spectra provide a unique reference data set with unprecedented precision and large phase-space coverage to tune models used for the simulation of particle production in extensive air showers in which pions are the most numerous projectiles.