Professor Brian Foster OBE, FRS

Abstract:

The ZEUS Central Tracking Detector utilizes a time difference measurement to provide a fast determination of the z coordinate of each hit. The z-by-timing measurement is achieved by using a Time-to-Amplitude Converter which has an intrinsic timing resolution of 36 ps, has pipelined readout, and has a multihit capability of 48 ns. In order to maintain the required sub-nanosecond timing accuracy, the technique incorporates an automated self-calibration system. The readout of the z-by-timing data utilizes a fully customized timing control system which runs synchronously with the HERA beam-crossing clock, and a data acquisition system implemented on a network of Transputers. Three dimensional space-points provided by the z-by-timing system are used as input to all three levels of the ZEUS trigger and for offline track reconstruction. The average z resolution is determined to be 4.4 cm for multi-track events from positron-proton collisions in the ZEUS detector.

Abstract:

This paper presents measurements of D*f± production in deep inelastic scattering from collisions between 27.5GeV positrons and 820GeV protons. The data have been taken with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The decay channel D*+ → (D0 → K-π+)π+ (+c.c.) has been used in the study. The e+p cross section for inclusive D*± production with 5 < Q2 < 100GeV2 and y < 0.7 is 5.3±1.0±0.8nb in the kinematic region 1.3 < pT(D*±) < 9.0GeV and |η(D*±) | < 1.5. Differential cross sections as functions of pT(D*±), η(D*±), W and Q2 are compared with next-to-leading order QCD calculations based on the photon-gluon fusion production mechanism. After an extrapolation of the cross section to the full kinematic region in pT(D*±) and η(D*±), the charm contribution Fcc̄2(x,Q2) to the proton structure function is determined for Bjorken x between 2 · 10-4 and 5 · 10-3. © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.

Abstract:

A small electromagnetic sampling calorimeter, installed in the ZEUS experiment in 1995, significantly enhanced the acceptance for very low x and low Q² inelastic neutral current scattering, e⁺p → e⁺X, at HERA. A measurement of the proton structure function F2 and the total virtual photon-proton (γ*p) cross-section is presented for 0.11 ≤ Q² ≤ 0.65 GeV² and 2 × 10^-6 ≤ x ≤ 6 × 10^-5, corresponding to a range in the γ*p c.m. energy of 100 ≤ W ≤ 230 GeV. Comparisons with various models are also presented. © 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

Abstract:

Diffractive dissociation of quasi-real photons at a photon-proton centre of mass energy of W ≈ 200 GeV is studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The process under consideration is γp → XN, where X is the diffractively dissociated photon system of mass MX and N is either a proton or a nucleonic system with mass MN < 2 GeV. The cross section for this process in the interval 3 < MX < 24 GeV relative to the total photoproduction cross section was measured to be σDpartial/σtot = 6.2 ± 0.2(stat) ± 1.4(syst)%. After extrapolating this result to the mass interval of mφ2 < MX2 < 0.05W2 and correcting it for proton dissociation, the fraction of the total cross section attributed to single diffractive photon dissociation, γp → Xp, is found to be σSD/σtot = 13.3 ± 0.5(stat) ± 3.6(syst)%. The mass spectrum of the dissociated photon system in the interval 8 < MX < 24 GeV can be described by the triple pomeron (IP IP IP) diagram with an effective pomeron intercept of αIP(0) = 1.12 ± 0.04(stat) ± 0.08(syst). The cross section for photon dissociation in the range 3 < MX < 8 GeV is significantly higher than that expected from the triple pomeron amplitude describing the region 8 < MX < 24 GeV. Assuming that this discrepancy is due to a pomeron-pomeron-reggeon (IP IP IR) term, its contribution to the diffractive cross section in the interval 3 < MX < 24 GeV is estimated to be fIP IP IR = 26 ± 3(stat) ± 12(syst)%. © Springer-Verlag 1997.

Abstract:

The reaction γ p → J/ψ p has been studied in ep interactions using the ZEUS detector at HERA. The cross section for elastic J/ψ photoproduction has been measured as a function of the photon-proton centre of mass energy W in the range 40 < W < 140 GeV at a median photon virtuality Q2 of 5 × 10-5 GeV2. The photoproduction cross section, σγp→J/ψp, is observed to rise steeply with W. A fit to the data presented in this paper to determine the parameter δ in the form σγp→J/ψp α Wδ yields the value δ = 0.92±0.14±0.10. The differential cross section dσ/d|t| is presented over the range |t| < 1.0 GeV2 where t is the square of the four-momentum exchanged at the proton vertex. dσ/d|t| falls exponentially with a slope parameter of 4.6 ± 0.4-0.6+0.4 GeV-2. The measured decay angular distributions are consistent with s-channel helicity conservation. © Springer-Verlag 1997.