Professor Amanda Cooper-Sarkar

Abstract:

The ZEUS detector has been used to study dissociation of virtual photons in events with a leading proton, γ*p → Xp, in e+p collisions at HERA. The data cover photon virtualities in two ranges, 0.03 < Q2 < 0.60 GeV2 and 2 < Q2 < 100 GeV2, with MX > 1.5 GeV, where MX is the mass of the hadronic final state, X. Events were required to have a leading proton, detected in the ZEUS leading proton spectrometer, carrying at least 90% of the incoming proton energy. The cross section is presented as a function of t, the squared four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex, Φ, the azimuthal angle between the positron scattering plane and the proton scattering plane, and Q2. The data are presented in terms of the diffractive structure function, F2D(3). A next-to-leading-order QCD fit to the higher-Q2 data set and to previously published diffractive charm production data is presented. © Springer-Verlag/Società Italiana di Fisica 2004.

Abstract:

A resonance search has been made in the D*±p∓ invariant-mass spectrum with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 126 pb-1. The decay channels D*+ -→ D0πs+ → (K -π+)πs+ and D*+ → D0πs+ → (K-π+π+π-) πs+ (and the corresponding antiparticle decays) were used to identify D*± mesons. No resonance structure was observed in the D*± p∓ mass spectrum from more than 60 000 reconstructed D*± mesons. The results are not compatible with a report of the H1 Collaboration of a charmed pentaquark, Θc0. © Springer-Verlag / Società Italiana di Fisica 2004.

Abstract:

The dependence of dijet production on the virtuality of the exchanged photon, Q2, has been studied by measuring dijet cross sections in the range 0 ≲ Q2 < 2000 GeV2 with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 38.6 pb-1. Dijet cross sections were measured for jets with transverse energy ETjet > 7.5 and 6.5 GeV and pseudorapidities in the photon-proton centre-of-mass frame in the range -3 < jet < 0. The variable xγobs, a measure of the photon momentum entering the hard process, was used to enhance the sensitivity of the measurement to the photon structure. The Q2 dependence of the ratio of low- to high-xγobs events was measured. Next-to-leading-order QCD predictions were found to generally underestimate the low-xγobs contribution relative to that at high xγobs. Monte Carlo models based on leading-logarithmic parton-showers, using a partonic structure for the photon which falls smoothly with increasing Q2, provide a qualitative description of the data. © Springer-Verlag / Società Italiana di Fisica 2004.