p−pInteractions at 3 Bev

Interactions initiated by 3-Bev protons of the Brookhaven Cosmotron were studied by photoemulsion technique. With appropriate criteria, 115 events are attributed to interactions of the incident beam protons with hydrogen nuclei (∼55%) and with bound protons of other nuclei (∼45%). A detailed analysis allowed the subdivision of the 115 events in categories, according to the number of $\pi$ mesons ($N>~0$) produced in the collision. The ratio of elastic scattering to the total number of events was estimated to be $\frac{{\sigma }_{\mathrm{el}}}{{\sigma }_{\mathrm{total}}}={{0.20}_{-0.07\mathrm{}}}^{+0.04\mathrm{}}$. The observed cross section for pure elastic scattering is ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{el}}=8.9\mathrm{}\pm 1.0$ mb.