Total Cross Section of Hydrogen for 143- to 205-Mev Positive Pions

Using counter techniques, a higher-precision determination of the π⁺+p total cross section in the neighborhood of the T=J=3/2 resonance has been made. The energy width, statistical errors, and absolute errors were considerably reduced in an extension of our previously reported work. The eight total cross sections which were determined in the pion kinetic-energy range of 143 to 205 Mev are compared to other earlier work and their theoretical interpretation is discussed.