Prof Roman Walczak

Abstract:

The production of φ mesons in the reaction e+p → e+φp (φ → K+K-), for 7 < Q2 < 25 GeV2 and for virtual photon-proton centre of mass energies (W) in the range 42-134 GeV, has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA. When compared to lower energy data at similar Q2, the results show that the γp → p0p cross section rises strongly with W. This behaviour is similar to that previously found for the γ*p → p0p cross section. This strong dependence cannot be explained by production through soft pomeron exchange. It is, however, consistent with perturbative QCD expectations, where it reflects the rise of the gluon momentum density in the proton at small x. The ratio of σ(φ)/σ(p0), which has previously been determined by ZEUS to be 0.065 ± 0.013 (stat.) in photoproduction at a mean W of 70 GeV, is measured to be 0.18 ± 0.05 (stat.) ± 0.03 (syst.) at a mean Q2 of 12.3 GeV2 and mean W of ≈ 100 GeV and is thus approaching at large Q2 the value of 2/9 predicted from the quark charges of the vector mesons and a flavour independent production mechanism.

Abstract:

The production of φ mesons in the reaction e+p → e+φp (φ → K+K-) at a median Q2 of 10-4 GeV2 has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The differential φ photoproduction cross section dσ/dt has an exponential shape and has been determined in the kinematic range 0.1 < |t| < 0.5 GeV2 and 60 < W < 80 GeV. An integrated cross section of σγp→φp = 0.96 ± 0.19+0.21-.18 μb has been obtained by extrapolating to t = 0. When compared to lower energy data, the results show a weak energy dependence of both σγp→φp and the slope of the t distribution. The φ decay angular distributions are consistent with s-channel helicity conservation. From lower energies to HERA energies, the features of φ photoproduction are compatible with those of a soft diffractive process.

Abstract:

Photoproduction events which have two or more jets have been studied in the Wγp range 135 GeV < Wγp < 280 GeV with the ZEUS detector at HERA. A class of events is observed with little hadronic activity between the jets. The jets are separated by pseudorapidity intervals (Δη) of up to four units and have transverse energies greater than 6 GeV. A gap is defined as the absence between the jets of particles with transverse energy greater than 300 MeV. The fraction of events containing a gap is measured as a function of Δη. It decreases exponentially as expected for processes in which colour is exchanged between the jets, up to a value of Δη ∼ 3, then reaches a constant value of about 0.1. The excess above the exponential fall-off can be interpreted as evidence for hard diffractive scattering via a strongly interacting colour singlet object.

Abstract:

A measurement of inclusive charged particle distributions in deep inelastic ep scattering for γ*p centre-of-mass energies 75 < W < 175 GeV and momentum transfer squared 10 < Q2 < 160 GeV2 from the ZEUS detector at HERA is presented. The differential charged particle rates in the γ*p centre-of-mass system as a function of the scaled longitudinal momentum, xF, and of the transverse momentum, pt* and , as a function of xF, W and Q2 are given. Separate distributions are shown for events with (LRG) and without (NRG) a rapidity gap with respect to the proton direction. The data are compared with results from experiments at lower beam energies, with the naive quark parton model and with parton models including perturbative QCD corrections. The comparison shows the importance of the higher order QCD processes. Significant differences of the inclusive charged particle rates between NRG and LRG events at the same W are observed. The value of for LRG events with a hadronic mass MX, which excludes the forward produced baryonic system, is similar to the

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