Baryon production at very high energies approximately 10/sup 6/ GeV

Experimental measurements of the charged to neutral ratio for high energy hadrons in extensive air showers of primary energies approximately 10/sup 6/ GeV are discussed in relatio2154452n to the expected values from Monte Carlo simulations. The charged to neutral ratio is sensitive to the baryon content of hadrons in air showers. A large ratio represents dominance of pions while nucleon dominance would result in a ratio close to unity. Experiments show a small charge ratio at high energies indicating the presence of a large number of baryons among the hadrons. These observations suggest that baryon production cross-section in p-p collisions, which has been seen to increase by a factor of about 2 from Fermilab energies to CERN-ISR energies, continues to increase with energy. Observed charged to neutral ratio requires that the baryon content of particles produced in the central region in p-p collisions increases from about 7% at ISR energies to more than about 15% at CERN-pp Collider energies. (32 refs).