  The one-pion and two-pion production in the p(alpha, alpha prime)X reaction
at an energy of E{alpha} = 4.2 GeV has been studied by simultaneous
registration of the scattered alpha particles and the secondary pion or proton.
The obtained results demonstrate that the inelastic alpha-particle scattering
on the proton at the energy of the experiment proceeds either through
excitation and decay of Delta resonance in the projectile or through excitation
in the target proton of the Roper resonance, which decays mainly on a nucleon
and a pion or a nucleon and a sigma meson - system of two pions in the isospin
I = 0, S-wave.
