Measurement of hadron production in $\pi^{−}$-C interactions at 158 and 350 GeV/$c$ with NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS

We present a measurement of the momentum spectra of π±, K±, p±, Λ, Λ¯, and KS0 produced in interactions of negatively charged pions with carbon nuclei at beam momenta of 158 and 350 GeV/c. The total production cross sections are measured as well. The data were collected with the large-acceptance spectrometer of the fixed target experiment NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS. The obtained double-differential p-pT spectra provide a unique reference dataset with unprecedented precision and large phase-space coverage to tune models used for the simulation of particle production in extensive air showers in which pions are the most numerous projectiles.