Hadron-hadron and hadron-nuclei collisions at high energies

In the 1960’s-1980’s high quality secondary beams became available at proton synchrotrons of increasing energies (PS, AGS, IHEP, FNAL, SPS). The secondary charged hadron beams contained the six stable or quasi stable charged particles π, K, p, p. The main experimental lines of research were: i) total hadron–hadron (hh) cross section measurements at high energies (plab > 20 GeV/c); ii) elastic hh scattering measurements; iii) measurements of absorption cross sections of hadrons in nuclei (as byproducts of hh total cross section measurements); iv) hadron production at forward angles in p−nuclei collisions, and v) inelastic hh collisions [1-5]. In some high intensity beams many particle searches were made, which also lead to the study of d, t and He3 production [6]. In order to reach higher energies it became necessary to build hadron colliders. The first was the ISR pp and pp collider at CERN, which allowed to reach c.m. energies between 22 and 63 GeV; then the SppS collider at CERN allowed pp collisions from 600 to 900 GeV; finally the Fermilab Tevatron collider allowed pp collisions up to 1.8 TeV. The first experiments performed at the ISR were relatively simple dedicated experiments, like those for total cross section and elastic scattering measurements, and single arm spectrometers for the study of inelastic collisions [7-8]. Then followed general purpose detectors: the SFM at the ISR [9], the general purpose detectors UA1 and UA2 and experiment UA4 at the SppS collider, and finally the general purpose detectors CDF, D0 and the specialized experiments E710, F8 at Fermilab [10]. The highest energies were and are still obtainable only with Cosmic Rays. We shall discuss total cross sections at high energies, the high energy low−pt parameters and some features of inelastic collisions [11, 12].