Fixed target hadron production measurements

The knowledge of light hadron production cross-sections in proton-nucleus interactions is an important prerequisite to the analysis of a wide variety of experiments. One of the important limiting factors for the precision of accelerator based and atmospheric neutrino oscillation experiments is the uncertainty in the composition and spectrum of the neutrino flux. Cosmic-ray experiments detecting extensive air-showers can greatly improve their ability to interpret the data when precise hadron production spectra are available over a large range of energies. Dedicated hadron production experiments have been taking data recently and are now publishing their results. Other experiments have just started their data-taking and plan to supply measurements which can significantly extend the kinematic range in which data will be available. Early measurements at the LHC can extend this range to much higher energies than available up to now. Recent results will be shown and compared with hadronic production models. An outlook of forthcoming results is given and the possibilities at the LHC are explored. The E910 experiment at BNL has recently published their p–Be data. The HARP experiment has presented results on the measurements of the double-differential production cross-section of charged pions in proton interactions with beryllium, carbon, aluminium, copper, tin, tantalum and lead targets. NA49 has measured pion production spectra in p–C interactions and a new experiment, NA61, has taken data using an upgraded version of this detector. NA61 plans to measure production spectra for the T2K experiment and for the calculation of extended air showers. MIPP has taken data with a copy of the NuMI target and is progressing in the analysis of these data. An upgrade of the readout of this experiment can greatly increase its potential.