Effects of Scattering and Absorption of Mesons on Coincidence-Anticoincidence Measurements

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Abstract
Effects due to absorption and scattering of cosmic-ray mesons with respect to position and nature of various materials were studied with a coincidence-anticoincidence counter. Lead, iron, and paraffin and combinations of them were used. The position of the material was found to account for large variations in the counting rate which could be greater or less than that with no absorber. Effects which had sometimes been previously reported by others to indicate the presence of neutral particles are shown to be largely due to the geometry and other incidental causes. There was, however, a small residual effect due to paraffin, greater than the statistical error, always in the direction which could be interpreted in terms of exchange of charge or the production of neutral rays.