Multiplicities in high energy interactions

This paper reviews the data on multiplicities in high energy interactions. Results from e/sup +/e/sup -/ annihilation, from neutrino interactions, and from hadronic collisions, both diffractive and nondiffractive, are compared and contrasted. The energy dependence of the mean charged multiplicity, <n/sub ch/>, as well as the rapidity density at Y = 0 are presented. For hadronic collisions, the data on neutral pion production shows a strong correlation with <n/sub ch/>. The heavy particle fractions increase with ..sqrt..s up to the highest energies. The charged particle multiplicity distributions for each type of reaction show a scaling behavior when expressed in terms of the mean. Attempts to understand this behavior, which was first predicted by Koba, Nielsen, and Olesen, are discussed. The multiplicity correlations and the energy variation of the shape of the KNO scaling distribution provide important constraints on models. Some extrapolations to the energies of the Superconducting Super Collider are made. 51 refs., 27 figs