Measurement of asymmetries of inclusive pion production in proton-proton interactions at 6 and 11.8 GeV/c

We have used the polarized proton beam at the Argonne zero-gradient synchrotron to measure left-right asymmetries in the processes ppol+p→π±±X at p0=611.8 Gev/c and pl*pmax=0.10.9. For both pion charges, the asymmetries show considerable but different structure in u, the square of the four-momentum transfer between the incident proton and the outgoing pion. The data suggest that pions produced at large x in pp collisions result from a baryon-exchange process.