Professor Amanda Cooper-Sarkar

Abstract:

Mean values and differential distributions of event-shape variables have been studied in neutral current deep inelastic scattering using an integrated luminosity of 82.2 pb-1 collected with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The kinematic range is 80 < Q2 < 20 480 GeV2 and 0.0024 < x < 0.6, where Q2 is the virtuality of the exchanged boson and x is the Bjorken variable. The data are compared with a model based on a combination of next-to-leading-order QCD calculations with next-to-leading-logarithm corrections and the Dokshitzer-Webber non-perturbative power corrections. The power-correction method provides a reasonable description of the data for all event-shape variables studied. Nevertheless, the lack of consistency of the determination of αs and of the non-perturbative parameter of the model, over(α0, -), suggests the importance of higher-order processes that are not yet included in the model. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

The production of beauty quarks with a D*± and a muon in the final state has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 114 pb-1. Low transverse-momentum thresholds for the muon and D* meson allow for a measurement of beauty production closer to the production threshold than previous measurements. The beauty signal was extracted using the charge correlations and angular distributions of the muon with respect to the D* meson. Cross sections for photoproduction and deep inelastic scattering are somewhat higher than, but compatible with, next-to-leading-order QCD predictions, and compatible with other measurements. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.

Abstract:

The photoproduction of dijet events, where the two jets with the highest transverse energy are separated by a large gap in pseudorapidity, have been studied with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of 39 pb -1. Rapidity-gap events are defined in terms of the energy flow between the jets, such that the total summed transverse energy in this region is less than some value ETCUT. The data show a clear excess over the predictions of standard photoproduction models. This is interpreted as evidence for a strongly interacting exchange of a color-singlet object. Monte Carlo models which include such a color-singlet exchange are able to describe the data. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.