Professor Amanda Cooper-Sarkar

Abstract:

The distribution of the azimuthal angle for the charged hadrons has been studied in the hadronic centre-of-mass system for neutral current deep inelastic positron-proton scattering with the ZEUS detector at HERA. Measurements of the dependence of the moments of this distribution on the transverse momenta of the charged hadrons are presented. Asymmetries that can be unambiguously attributed to perturbative QCD processes have been observed for the first time. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V.

Abstract:

The first measurement of inclusive D(s)(±) photoproduction at HERA has been performed with the ZEUS detector for photon-proton centre-of-mass energies 130 < W < 280GeV. The measured cross section for 3 < p (is perpendicular to)/(D(s)) < 12GeV and |η(D(s))| < 1.5 is σ(ep → D(s)X) = 3.79 ± 0.59(stat.) -0.46/+0.26 (syst.) ± 0.94(br.)nb, where the last error arises from the uncertainty in the D(s)(±) decay branching ratio. The measurements are compared with inclusive D*(±) photoproduction cross sections in the same kinematic region and with QCD calculations. The D(s)(±) cross sections lie above a fixed-order next-to-leading order calculation and agree better with a tree-level O(αα(s)/3) calculation that was tuned to describe the ZEUS D*(±) cross sections. The ratio of D(s)(±) to D*(±) cross sections is 0.41 ± 0.07 (stat.) -0.05/+0.03 (syst.) ± 0.10(br.). From this ratio, the strangeness-suppression factor in charm photoproduction, within the LUND string fragmentation model, has been calculated to be γ(s) = 0.27 ± 0.05 ± 0.07(br.). The cross-section ratio and γ(s) are in good agreement with those obtained in charm production in e+e- annihilation. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V.

Abstract:

The dependence of the photon structure on the photon virtuality, Q², is studied by measuring the reaction e⁺p → e⁺ + jet + jet + X at photon-proton centre-of-mass energies 134 < W < 223 GeV. Events have been selected in the Q² ranges ≃ 0 GeV², 0.1-0.55 GeV², and 1.5-4.5 GeV², having two jets with transverse energy E(T)/(jet) > 5.5 GeV in the final state. The dijet cross section has been measured as a function of the fractional momentum of the photon participating in the hard process, x(γ)/(OBS). The ratio of the dijet cross section with x(γ)/(OBS) < 0.75 to that with x(γ)/(OBS) > 0.75 decreases as Q² increases. The data are compared with the predictions of NLO pQCD and leading-order Monte Carlo programs using various parton distribution functions of the photon. The measurements can be interpreted in terms of a resolved photon component that falls with Q² but remains present at values of Q² up to 4.5 GeV². However, none of the models considered gives a good description of the data. (C) Copyright 2000 Elsevier Science B.V.