Parameterized total cross sections for pion production in nuclear collisions

Total inclusive cross sections for neutral and charged pion production in proton–nucleus and nucleus–nucleus reactions have been calculated and compared to experiment. Nucleon–nucleon theoretical cross sections have been scaled up to nuclear collisions using a scaling factor similar to (APAT)2/3, where AP and AT are the nucleon numbers of the projectile and target nuclei. Variations in the power of this scaling factor have been studied and a good fit to experiment is obtained with a small modification of the power. Theoretical cross sections are written in a form that is very suitable for immediate input into transport codes.