Hadron Production in High-Energy Muon Scattering.

An experiment to study muon-proton scattering at an incident energy of 225 GeV and a total effective flux of 4.3 times 10 to the 10th power muons is presented. The experiment was able to detect charged particles in coincidence with the scattered muon in the forward hemisphere. Results for the neutral strange particles K degrees sub s (kaon) and Lambda degree (Lambda hyperon) decaying into two charged particles are reported. The distribution of hadrons produced in muon scattering was determined, momentum components parallel and transverse to the virtual photon direction were measured, and the distributions are compared to other high energy experiments involving the scattering of pions, protons, and neutrinos from protons. Structure functions for hadron production and particle ratios were calculated.