Characteristics of Neutral Meson Production in the Proton Bombardment of Carbon Nuclei

The photon spectra radiated from carbon targets bombarded by 340-Mev protons have been measured for various angles of view of the target. Assuming a unique origin of the photons from the decay of a neutral meson into two photons, the energy and rough angular distributions of neutral mesons are deduced from these spectra. The excitation function for producing neutral mesons is also inferred from the measured spectra for various energies of incident protons. The cross section for the production of neutral mesons per carbon nucleus for 340-Mev protons is (3.4±0.8)×${10}^{-27\mathrm{}}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^2$.