A novel form of mass spectrometer has been used to measure the masses, widths, and cross sections of the η, ω, X0(958), and φ mesons near their respective thresholds in the reaction π−+p→missingmass+n. The incident momentum is varied in small steps through the threshold while neutrons of a given momentum are detected near zero degrees. The lower limit of the c.m. momentum P* at which measurements have been made ranges from about 50 MeV/c at the φ to about 30 MeV/c at the η. A somewhat low value for the ω mass, 782.3 ± 0.6 MeV, is found. The width of the X0 is < 1.9 MeV (95% confidence level). All four mesons show evidence of S-wave production, with values of σP* of 21.2 ± 1.8, 0.35 ± 0.03, and 0.29 ± 0.06 μb/(MeV/c) for the η, X0, and φ, respectively. A rapid rise in the ω cross section appears to be modified by a final-state interaction. The effect of this rise can probably be seen in some S11 pion-nucleon phase-shift solutions. Evidence is also presented of a sudden drop in the π+π− mass spectrum just above the threshold for the production of a K+K− pair. The paper includes a comprehensive discussion of the method and of the details of the spectrometer.

The average transverse momentum squared, 〈 p ⊥ 2 〉, of hadrons is studied as a function of W 2 and of Q 2 for ν and ν interactions on an isoscalar target. An increase of 〈 p ⊥ 2 〉 with W 2 is observed for the hadrons emitted forward in the hadronic c.m.s. The p ⊥ dependence of the fragmentation function is found to factorise from the structure function at fixed W , but does not factorise at fixed Q 2 . Unlike the case of forward-going particles, the 〈 p ⊥ 2 〉 of hadrons going backward in the c.m.s. shows no strong dependence on W 2 .

The UA2 experiment, running at the CERN SPS\(\bar pp\) Collider, has performed a study of events containing three hard jets in the final state. The angular distributions of the three jets show evidence for gluon bremsstrahlung, in good agreement with a QCD model to leading order in the strong coupling constant αs. The yield of three-jet events relative to that of two-jet events provides a measure of the strong coupling constant: ;3K3/K2=0.23±0.01±0.04, whereK2 andK3 represent the contributions arising from higher order corrections in α3 to the two- and three-jet exclusive cross-sections. A detailed discussion of the systematic and theoretical uncertainties is given.

We report on the first search with virtual photon-photon collisions for narrow, neutral resonances with even C parity in the mass range 4.5<W<19 GeV. The data were obtained via the process e+e−→e+e−γ*γ*→e e−+R with both the scattered e+ and e− detected. We find upper limits (95% confidence level) for the partial decay width of a resonance into two photons, ranging from 50 keV at W=4.5 GeV to 10 MeV at W=19 GeV. These limits constrain theoretical models involving neutral composite bosons.

We report measurements of the two-photon processes e+e−→e+e−π+π− and e+e−→e+e−K+K−, at an e+e− center-of-mass energy of 29 GeV. In the π+π− data a high-statistics analysis of the f(1270) results in a γγ width Γ(γγ→f)=3.2±0.4 keV. The π+π− continuum below the f mass is well described by a QED Born approximation, whereas above the f mass it is consistent with a QCD-model calculation if a large contribution from the f is assumed. For the K+K− data we find agreement of the high-mass continuum with the QCD prediction; limits on f′(1520) and θ(1720) formation are presented.

A sample of two-jet events from the UA1 experiment at the CERN $p \bar{p}$ Collider has been used to study the fragmentation of high-energy quark and gluon jets into charged hadrons. Compared with lower-energy jets observed in $e^+ e^−$ and $pp$ collisions, the fragmentation function measured in the present experiment is softer (i.e. peaked to smaller values of z) and the mean internal transverse momentum is larger, mainly because of the effects of the QCD scaling violations. Using our knowledge of the quark and gluon structure functions in the proton, together with the QCD matrix elements, a statistical separation of quark and gluon jets is achieved within the present experiment. The fragmentation function for the gluon jets is found to be softer, and the angular spread of the fragmentation products larger, than is the case for quark jets.

We measure an inclusive branching fraction of (13.9 ± 2.0−2.2+1.9)% for the decay τ−→ντπ−π0+nh0(n>~1), where h0 is a π0 or an η. The data sample, obtained with the time-projection-chamber detector facility at the SLAC e+e− storage ring PEP, corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 72 pb−1 at 29 GeV center-of-mass energy. The measured branching fraction is somewhat greater than the theoretical prediction and, with errors taken into account, could resolve the present difference between the inclusive and the sum of the exclusive τ± branching fractions into one charged prong.

We compare the particle flow in the event plane of three-jet qq¯g (quark-antiquark-gluon) events with the particle flow in radiative annihilation events qq¯γ (quark-antiquark-photon) for similar kinematic configurations. In the angular region between quark and antiquark jet, we find a significant decrease in particle density for qq¯g as compared to qq¯γ. This effect is predicted in QCD as a result of destructive interference between soft-gluon radiation from quark, antiquark, and hard gluon.

We present a measurement of the photon structure functionF2γ in the reactionee→eeX forQ2 in the range 0.2<Q2<7 GeV2, using 9,200 multihadron events obtained with the TPC/Two-Gamma detector at PEP. The data have been corrected for detector effects using a regularized unfolding procedure and are presented as a function ofx andQ2. The structure function shows scaling in the region 0.3<Q2<1.6 GeV2,x<0.3 and rises for higherQ2. AtQ2=5.1 GeV2 the results are compared with QCD and, within the scheme of Antoniadis and Grunberg, rather conservative bounds for the QCD scale parameter of 133±50<\(\Lambda _{\overline {{\rm M}S} } \)<268±98 MeV are obtained. A study of the final state structure shows that the rise ofF2γ is consistent with being entirely due to the pointlike component of the photon.

The structure function F2γ for a quasireal photon has been measured in the reaction ee→eeX for Q2 in the range 0.2<Q2<7 GeV2, by use of 9200 multihadron events obtained with the TPC/Two-Gamma detector at the SLAC storage ring PEP. The data have been corrected for detector effects by a regularized unfolding procedure and are presented as F2γ(x,Q2). The structure function shows scaling in the region 0.3<Q2<1.6 GeV2, x<0.3, and rises for higher Q2 and x>0.1. Below Q2=0.3 GeV2, scaling breaks down in accordance with the finite cross-section bound for real photons.