Angular distributions of channeled pions and protons up to 250 GeV/c

Channeling phenomena are observed for positive particles of momentum up to 250 GeV/c in a germanium crystal. The polar angular distributions of the channeled particles are compared with theoretical predictions based on a diffusion model. The results indicate that at high particle energy there may be additional mechanisms besides those operative at low energy leading to dechanneling of the particles. In spite of this, channeling effects are observed for particles incident at up to several times the critical angle, in contrast with the results from low energy channeling. Statistical equilibrium in the azimuthal angular distribution has also been observed at all measured beam momenta to about twice the calculated channeling critical angle. The breakdown of statistical equilibrium for the 2 cm crystal used occurs at an incident angle 2–3 times smaller than predicted theoretically.