Investigation of<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>π</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>+</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">Ne</mml:mi></mml:math>and<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>π</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>−</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">Ne</mml:mi></mml:math>interactions at 10.5 GeV/<i>c</i>

Detailed studies of ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{+}\mathrm{Ne}$ and ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{Ne}$ interactions at 10.5 GeV/c have been carried out. Multiplicities, correlations, and inclusive momentum and rapidity spectra for ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{+}$, ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$, and $p$ are reported. Average multiplicities for ${K}^{0}$ and ${\ensuremath{\Lambda}}^{0}$ production are also determined. Comparisons are made to results from $\ensuremath{\pi}p$ interactions. Relative to $\ensuremath{\pi}p$ collisions, pion production is enhanced in the target-fragmentation region but not in the central or projectile-fragmentation regions. Many of the pion production properties can be understood in terms of a simple kinematical model in which the effective target mass is greater than a nucleon mass. A surprising number of energetic protons are observed (laboratory momentum \ensuremath{\gtrsim} 1.3 GeV/c). For shower-track multiplicities \ensuremath{\sim}8, the produced nucleons are found to carry away an average of 40% of the incident momentum, indicating the possible existence of previously unrecognized mechanisms for the efficient momentum transfer to nucleons in particle-nucleus collisions.

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