Muon-proton collisions exhibiting leading particle effect

Abstract

The data on charged hadronic multiplicities as well as on the dispersion in μ⁺ p collisions at the cms energies from 4 to 20 GeV are considered in the frame of the quantum statistical bosonic approach including the influence of the leading particle effect. The experimental results on the dispersions cannot be explained within the original KNO scaling hypothesis nor with the energy independent leading particle effect. Starting from the requirement that the theoretical dispersions should be equal to the observed ones (at all published energies) we arrive at a good theoretical representation of the observed KNO like density distribution. At the same time, the variation of the average charged multiplicity with energy implies the oscillation of the parameter measuring the leading particle effect.