Validity of the latest interpretation on primary energy estimation and dependence of average number of hadrons on laboratory momentum

Interpretation on primary energy estimation by Bhowmik, Singh, and Kaul has been substantiated from the data obtained from interactions of a 70 GeV proton beam in nuclear emulsion. Criteria A and B have been applied for the classification of the cascade mechanism and tube mechanism for the energy estimation of individual events. From our experimental data it has been shown that the percentage of coherent production is not as high as claimed by this group, but energy estimation by this new method agrees fairly well with our incident proton energy of E = 70 GeV. Moreover, it is found that Nsub(h) = 8.44 +- 0.46 at 70 GeV/c and our data indicate that Nsub(h) is independent of laboratory momentum beyond 20 GeV/c. (author)