Inclusive pion and $\eta$ production in p+Nb collisions at 3.5 GeV beam energy

Data on inclusive pion and η production measured with the dielectron spectrometer HADES in the reaction $p+^{93}Nb$ at a kinetic beam energy of 3.5 GeV are presented. Our results, obtained with the photon-conversion method, supplement the rather sparse information on neutral-meson production in proton-nucleus reactions existing for this bombarding energy regime. The reconstructed $e^{+}e^{−}e^{+}e^{−}$ transverse-momentum and rapidity distributions are confronted with transport-model calculations, which account fairly well for both $\pi^{0}$ and $\eta$ production.