Production cross-section of antiprotons for the study of cosmic-ray propagation in the Galaxy

The production cross-section for antiprotons ( p ¯ ’s) in p–p collisions is presented for the study of cosmic-ray antiproton (CR- p ¯ ) propagation in the Galaxy. We propose a semi-empirical production cross-section of p ¯ , with only three free parameters, the average multiplicity, N p ¯ , the average transverse momentum, 〈 p T 〉 , and the deformation parameter, τ , which characterises the deformation from the isotropic angular distribution of p ¯ in the center of mass system (CMS). This cross-section reproduces the experimental data now available in the proton projectile energy range of 10–1000 GeV very well. We also check the applicability of the present formula for proton–nucleus collisions. In order to apply the present result for the CR- p ¯ data, we further present the energy dependence of the parameters appearing in the production cross-section of p ¯ .