Professor Brian Foster OBE, FRS

Abstract:

Abstract: The production of beauty and charm quarks in ep interactions has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA for exchanged four-momentum squared 5 < Q2< 1000 GeV2using an integrated luminosity of 354 pb−1. The beauty and charm content in events with at least one jet have been extracted using the invariant mass of charged tracks associated with secondary vertices and the decay-length significance of these vertices. Differential cross sections as a function of Q2, Bjorken x, jet trans- verse energy and pseudorapidity were measured and compared with next-to-leading-order QCD calculations. The beauty and charm contributions to the proton structure functions were extracted from the double-differential cross section as a function of x and Q2. The running beauty-quark mass, mbat the scale mb, was determined from a QCD fit at next-to-leading order to HERA data for the first time and found to be mb(mb) = 4.07 ± 0.14 (fit)− 0.07+ 0.01(mod.)− 0.00+ 0.05(param.)− 0.05+ 0.08(theo.) GeV.

Abstract:

The production of D 0, D *+, D +, Ds+ and Λc+ charm hadrons and their antiparticles in ep scattering at HERA has been studied with the ZEUS detector, using a total integrated luminosity of 372 pb-1. The fractions of charm quarks hadronising into a particular charm hadron were derived. In addition, the ratio of neutral to charged D-meson production rates, the fraction of charged D mesons produced in a vector state, and the stangeness-suppression factor have been determined. The measurements have been performed in the photoproduction regime. The charm hadrons were reconstructed in the range of transverse momentum p T > 3.8 GeV and pseudorapidity |η| < 1.6. The charm fragmentation fractions are compared to previous results from HERA and from e + e - experiments. The data support the hypothesis that fragmentation is independent of the production process. © 2013 SISSA.

Abstract:

Charm production in deep inelastic ep scattering was measured with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of 354 pb-1. Charm quarks were identified by reconstructing D± mesons in the D ± → K∓π±π ± decay channel. Lifetime information was used to reduce combinatorial background substantially. Differential cross sections were measured in the kinematic region 5 < Q 2 < 1000 GeV 2, 0.02 < y < 0.7, 1.5 < p T (D ±) < 15 GeV and |η(D ±)| < 1.6, where Q 2 is the photon virtuality, y is the inelasticity, and p T (D ±) and η(D ±) are the transverse momentum and the pseudorapidity of the D ± meson, respectively. Next-to-leading-order QCD predictions are compared to the data. The charm contribution, F2cc̄, to the proton structure-function F 2 was extracted. © 2013 SISSA.

Abstract:

The cross sections for inelastic photoproduction of J/ψ and ψ′ mesons have been measured in ep collisions with the ZEUS detector at HERA, using an integrated luminosity of 468 pb-1 collected in the period 1996-2007. The ψ′ to J/ψ cross section ratio was measured in the range 0.55 < z < 0.9 and 60 < W < 190 GeV as a function of W, z and pT. Here W denotes the photon-proton centre-of-mass energy, z is the fraction of the incident photon energy carried by the meson and p T is the transverse momentum of the meson with respect to the beam axis. The J/ψ cross sections were measured for 0.1 < z < 0.9, 60 < W < 240 GeV and pT > 1 GeV. Theoretical predictions within the non-relativistic QCD framework including NLO colour-singlet and colour-octet contributions were compared to the data, as were predictions based on the k T-factorisation approach. © 2013 SISSA.

Abstract:

The production of the excited charm mesons D 1(2420) and D2*(2460) in ep collisions has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 373pb -1. The masses of the neutral and charged states, the widths of the neutral states, and the helicity parameter of D 1(2420) 0 were determined and compared with other measurements and with theoretical expectations. The measured helicity parameter of the D10 allows for some mixing of S- and D-waves in its decay to D *±π Π. The result is also consistent with a pure D-wave decay. Ratios of branching fractions of the two decay modes of the D2*(2460)0 and D2*(2460)± states were measured and compared with previous measurements. The fractions of charm quarks hadronising into D 1 and D2* were measured and are consistent with those obtained in e +e - annihilations. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.