UNIVERSAL MASS DEPENDENCE FOR MESON AND BARYON INCLUSIVE CROSS-SECTIONS

We show that the data on inclusive cross-sections for light mesons and baryons in high energy hadron-hadron interactions are consistent with a simple empirical formula sigma(incl) = a[(2J + 1)/(2I(m) + 1)] exp(-bM(2)) observed recently in e(+)e(-) annihilations, where J is the spin, I-m is a modified isospin and M is the mass of the produced particle. The same value of the slope parameter b is observed for e(+)e(-) annihilations at PEP/PETRA and LEP energies and for proton-proton interactions at ISR energies. This universal dependence points to a simple mass law for hadron states produced locally in string fragmentation irrespective of the configuration of the strings in various processes.