A new measurement of sigmasup(inel)sub(p-Fe) and sigmasup(inel)sub(π-Fe) at high energies

Measurements of the inelastic cross sections for hadron-iron nucleus interactions over the hadron energy range of 100-3000 GeV are reported. The cross sections were obtained from the observed attenuation of unaccompanied cosmic ray hadron beams inside an iron calorimeter containing wide-gap spark chambers. A transition radiation detector was used to measure directly the pion content of the hadron beam. The hadron-iron inelastic cross section is seen to increase by (12+-4)% over the energy interval 150 GeV to 1250 GeV. Using a value of 1.26 for the ratio sigmasub(p-Fe)/sigmasub(π-Fe) derived from Glauber theory it is deduced that the pion-iron inelastic cross section increases by (7.7+-3.4)% over this energy interval. (Auth.)