Observation of Quasi Two-Body Production in Pion Plus Proton Goes to Neutron Plus Four Charged Pions at 8 Gev/c.

This thesis reports the first observation of quasi 2-body production in the backward reaction (pi)('-)p ( --->) n(pi)('+)(pi)('+)(pi)('-)(pi)('-). Data were obtained using an 8 GeV/c pion beam incident on a liquid hydrogen target inside the University of Illinois/Argonne National Laboratory streamer chamber. The chamber was triggered by the interaction of a fast, forward neutral hadron in thick plate optical spark chambers. Total backward cross sections are derived for the processes (pi)('-)p (--->) N*('0) (1520) +(rho)('0)/f ('0), N*('0) (1670) +(rho)('0)/f ('0), (DELTA)('0) (1890) +(rho)('0)/f ('0), and (DELTA)(' -) (1236)+A(,2). Evidence for a narrow A(,1) resonance is not seen. Corrections for losses due to finite acceptance are made using Monte Carlo techniques based on a simple baryon exchange model. Comparison is made to another experiment regarding the energy dependence of certain cross sections and a simple power law behavior is observed.