Multiparticle production data on proton-nucleus collisions have been analyzed taking the number of ‘created’ charged particles instead of the observed number of shower particles as the variable. The mean normalized multiplicity,R_A, has been found to be independent of energy in the energy range (7–8000) GeV and its mass number dependence has been obtained. The modified analysis introduces some more regularities in the experimental results onp-nucleus collisions like the invariance with respect to energy of the relationshipR_A = α + βN_h and the KNO-like scaling of the multiplicity distributions of the created charged particles. The functional form of the scaling function has been calculated.

A model for multiparticle production process in high-energy hadronic collisions is proposed. In the centre of mass (CM) system of colliding particles the target and the projectile are assumed to pass through each other sharing energies allowed by kinematical constraints. Thus in app collision the energy associated with each is √S/2 (S being the square of the CM energy) which is taken to be the real variable that governs the number of particles produced. In the case of hadronnucleus collisions the projectile and the target ofv nucleons lying in a (Lorentz contracted) tube pass through each other sharing energies ⋍ √S_A2, whereS_A ⋍vS. Before the final state particles emerge from these systems, the constituents of the target, i.e.,v nucleons share equally (= √S_A2v) the total energy associated with the target and become the centres from which final state particles stem out. Several results have been discussed.