Phenomenological study of single-particle distributions near the kinematical limits

We present a phenomenological analysis of the Regge-pole predictions for single-particle distributions from inclusive reactions of the type a+b→c+ anything near the kinematical limits of the outgoing particle c. A prototype comparison with experimental data is made via a detailed analysis of the p, p̄, π⁺, π⁻, K⁺, and K⁻ distributions from inelastic pp scattering at 19.2 GeV/c and also some π⁻ distributions from pp scattering at 30 GeV/c. Our finding is that the distributions are not yet dominated by the known leading Regge poles. Some explanations are given. The prospects of this kind of study at higher machine energies are also discussed.