Semi-Phenomenological Model for Meson Production in High-Energy Nucleon-Nucleon Collisions

A "two-center" model is proposed for the description of meson production in high-energy nucleon-nucleon collisions. In this model the effect of one nucleon on the other is replaced by an equivalent interaction which frees pions "bound" in the second nucleon. The model takes into account "peripheral" collisions only and does not include mesons emanating from core-core collisions. A transverse momentum ($p_T$) distribution is obtained as a function of only the impact parameter and core radius. Our distributions agree well with experiment, the most probable $p_T$ being 0.3-0.4 BeV/c. The angular distribution obtained does not deviate much from an isotropic distribution in the center-of-mass system of the emitting nucleon.