Measurements of π ± , K ± , K 0 S , Λ and proton production in proton–carbon interactions at 31 GeV/ c with the NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN SPS

Measurements of hadron production in p + C interactions at 31 GeV/ c are performed using the NA61/ SHINE spectrometer at the CERN SPS. The analysis is based on the full set of data collected in 2009 using a graphite target with a thickness of 4 % of a nuclear interaction length. Inelastic and production cross sections as well as spectra of π ± , K ± , p, K 0 S and Λ are measured with high precision. These measurements are essential for improved calculations of the initial neutrino fluxes in the T2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment in Japan. A comparison of the NA61/SHINE measurements with predictions of several hadroproduction models is presented.