Topological cross sections in hadron-nucleon and hadron-nucleus collisions at very high energies

We apply our microscopic model for the topological cross section σ_n to produce n charged particles in hadron-proton interactions to hadron-nucleus scattering. The model is based on a stochastic branching process for hadronization. We calculate multiplicity distributions of hadron-nucleus collisions for 50 GeV ? E_L ? 400 GeV based on a multiple collision model. The production of “grey” $\text{(0.3 <}\text{ν}\text{c}\text{< 0.7)}$ particles is considered together with the shower $\text{(}\text{ν}\text{c}\text{> 0.7)}$ particles in order to test the model for higher number of collisions. The joint probability distribution of numbers of shower and grey particles F(n_s, n_g) is calculated. Finally, we critically compare the results to experimental data.