  The HARP collaboration has presented measurements of the double-differential
pi+/pi- production cross-section in the range of momentum 100 MeV/c <= p 800
MeV/c and angle 0.35 rad <= theta <= 2.15 rad with proton beams hitting thin
nuclear targets. In many applications the extrapolation to long targets is
necessary. In this paper the analysis of data taken with long (one interaction
length) solid cylindrical targets made of carbon, tantalum and lead is
presented. The data were taken with the large acceptance HARP detector in the
T9 beam line of the CERN PS. The secondary pions were produced by beams of
protons with momenta 5 GeV/c, 8 GeV/c and 12 GeV/c. The tracking and
identification of the produced particles were performed using a small-radius
cylindrical time projection chamber (TPC) placed inside a solenoidal magnet.
Incident protons were identified by an elaborate system of beam detectors.
Results are obtained for the double-differential yields per target nucleon d2
sigma / dp dtheta. The measurements are compared with predictions of the MARS
and GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulations.
