Relationship between low mass dimuon and meson productions in hadron-nucleus collisions

It is pointed out that the following two assumptions: (a) low mass dimuons produced in hadronic collisions are originated by annihilations of quarks and antiquarks created during the collision and (b) mesons produced in these collisions come from recombinations of quarks and antiquarks, imply a close similarity between the shapes of inclusive spectra of low mass dimuons and directly produced mesons. Some data corroborating such a similarity are briefly reviewed and crucial tests concerning the A-dependence of low mass dimuon production in various rapidity regions are proposed. (author)