Inclusive pion production in 330, 400, and 500 MeV proton-nucleus collisions

We present measurements of the inclusive ${\pi }^{\pm }$ momentum distributions and total pion production cross sections for 330, 400, and 500 MeV protons incident on ${}_{}{}^{12}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{C}$ and ${}_{}{}^{238}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{U}$. The ${\pi }^{+}$/${\pi }^{\mathrm{-}}$ cross section ratio is seen to increase sharply with decreasing projectile energy for the light nucleus. Comparisons are also presented of the projectile energy systematics of data and intranuclear cascade calculations in the intermediate energy region.