Inelastic Scattering ofπ-Mesons

The inelastic scattering of a $\pi$-meson is considered the result of an elastic collision between a meson and a free nucleon. The nuclear model determines the initial nucleon momentum distribution and limits the possible final states. The energy and angular distribution of scattered mesons is obtained in terms of the scattering probability in relative coordinates, which depends only on the momenta of the meson relative to the struck nucleon. Energy distributions of the scattered mesons, calculated for several cases from the differential cross section, indicate that collisions in which the meson loses most of its kinetic energy are relatively infrequent.