Characteristics of inelastic interactions of high energy hadrons with atomic electrons

Abstract The energy loss and angular characteristics of the inelastic interactions of high energy protons and pions (up to 30 TeV) with atomic electrons are analyzed in the electron rest frame. Inclusive distributions of the incident hadron, recoiling electron and produced pions are obtained along with the rms angles of these particles as a function of their momentum. The results are suitably parametrized for use in Monte Carlo simulations. For the incident hadron the average energy loss and rms angle in bulk matter are determined and compared with other processes. The contribution to d E /d x from inelastic processes exceeds that of competing processes in the multi-TeV regime.