Limits on the production of large transverse momentum direct photons deduced from the measurement of low-mass electron pairs

The hadronic production of electron pairs with masses between 200 and 500 MeV and large transverse momentum has been measured at the CERN Intersecting Storage Rings (ISR). The expected relation between low-mass electron pairs and real photons is used to determine the direct hadronic production of photons. Contrary to indications from some previous experiments, the observed spectrum is consistent with expectations from the decay of known mesons, and leads to a value for the ratio of direct photons to π0 of γ/π0=(0.55+-0.92)% for 2 = 55 GeV. (Auth.)