Coherent generation of mesons in nucleon-nucleon interactions

The authors have at an experiment conducted at CERN searched for events of 0 four-prong type which satisfy coherent pion production. The 2-meter hydrogen bubble chamber at CERN was bombarded by 19.07 GeV protons. The cross-section for four final state particle events was 13.04 mb. the cross-section for the process pp to pp pi /sup +/ pi /sup -/ was 1.1 mb and the cross section for coherent pion production was found to vary according to the criteria used between 0.044 mb. and 0.2 mb. Some theoretical work is given using the Glauber formalism in which it is assumed that the nucleon behaves like a nucleus and contains sub-particles. From the theory and data an upper limit of 10 is put on the number of subparticles in the nucleon. (9 refs).