A detailed study of data on pion production in
proton nucleus collisions has been made in order to
better understand the high value of the charged muon
ratio in the range 0.2-2.0 GeV/c at the top of the
atmosphere, where the muon flux is the result of the
first interaction of the cosmic ray protons with the
atmosphere. This paper describes a chronological
study of proton nucleus, p+Be(C), collisions. An
approximate factorised expression is obtained for
the differential cross section for charged pion
production. The multiplicity of the negatively
charged pions is parameterised as function of A and s. A Monte Carlo simulation method is applied to
calculate the charged muon ratio using the CAPRICE94
measured proton flux at float and the differential
cross section distributions of the pions. Our result
is compared to other simulations results and to the
CAPRICE94 results.
proton nucleus collisions has been made in order to
better understand the high value of the charged muon
ratio in the range 0.2-2.0 GeV/c at the top of the
atmosphere, where the muon flux is the result of the
first interaction of the cosmic ray protons with the
atmosphere. This paper describes a chronological
study of proton nucleus, p+Be(C), collisions. An
approximate factorised expression is obtained for
the differential cross section for charged pion
production. The multiplicity of the negatively
charged pions is parameterised as function of A and s. A Monte Carlo simulation method is applied to
calculate the charged muon ratio using the CAPRICE94
measured proton flux at float and the differential
cross section distributions of the pions. Our result
is compared to other simulations results and to the
CAPRICE94 results.