We present results obtained from a study of the structure of hadronic events recorded by the L3 detector at various centre-of-mass energies. The distributions of event shape variables and the energy dependence of their mean values are measured from 30GeV to 189GeV and compared with various QCD models. The energy dependence of the moments of event shape variables is used to test a power law ansatz for the non-perturbative component. We obtain a universal value of the non-perturbative parameter alpha_0 = 0.537 +/- 0.073. From a comparison with resummed O(alpha_s^2) QCD calculations, we determine the strong coupling constant at each of the selected energies. The measurements demonstrate the running of alpha_s as expected in QCD with a value of alpha_s(m_Z) = 0.1215 +/- 0.0012 (exp) +/- 0.0061 (th).

We present the general properties of multihadron final states produced by e+e− annihilation at center-of-mass energies from 52 to 57 GeV in the AMY detector at the KEK collider TRISTAN. Global shape, inclusive charged-particle, and particle-flow distributions are presented. Our measurements are compared with QCD+fragmentation models that use either leading-logarithmic parton-shower evolution or QCD matrix elements at the parton level, and either string or cluster fragmentation for hadronization.

We report on measurements of hadronic and leptonic cross sections and leptonic forward-backward asymmetries performed with the L3 detector in the years 1993-95. A total luminosity of 103 pb^-1 was collected at centre-of-mass energies \sqrt{s} ~ m_Z and \sqrt{s} ~ m_Z +/- 1.8 GeV which corresponds to 2.5 million hadronic and 245 thousand leptonic events selected. These data lead to a significantly improved determination of Z parameters. From the total cross sections, combined with our measurements in 1990-92, we obtain the final results: m_Z = 91189.8 +/- 3.1 MeV, Gamma_Z = 2502.4 +/- 4.2 MeV, Gamma_had = 1741.1 +/- 3.8 MeV, Gamma_l = 84.14 +/- 0.17 MeV. An invisible width of Gamma_inv = 499.1 +/- 2.9 MeV is derived which in the Standard Model yields for the number of light neutrino species N_nu = 2.978 +/- 0.014. Adding our results on the leptonic forward-backward asymmetries and the tau polarisation, the effective vector and axial-vector coupling constants of the neutral weak current to charged leptons are determined to be \bar{g}_V^l = -0.0397 +/- 0.0017 and \bar{g}_A^l = -0.50153 +/- 0.00053.Including our measurements of the Z -> b \bar{b} forward-backward and quark charge asymmetries a value for the effective electroweak mixing angle of sin^2\bar{\theta}_W = 0.23093 +/- 0.00066 is derived. All these measurements are in good agreement with the Standard Model of electroweak interactions. Using all our measurements of electroweak observables an upper limit on the mass of the Standard Model Higgs boson of m_H < 133 GeV is set at 95% confidence level.

Measurements of open charm production in photon-photon collisions made with the AMY detector at TRISTAN are reported. Charmed hadrons were identified by detecting the high momentum muons or electrons from their semileptonic decays. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 275 pb −1 at an average center of mass energy of 58 GeV. Results are presented in the form of cross sections of inclusive leptons from charm for both muons and electrons. The measured cross section is 1.8 standard deviations higher than theoretical predictions based on the direct and photon-gluon fusion process, where the mass of charm quark is assumed to be 1.6 GeV.

We have measured the cross-section of the production of single photon events in e + e − collisions near the Z 0 resonance. For an integrated luminosity of 9.6 pb −1 , we have observed 202 single photon candidates with energy between 0.9 and 3.5 GeV in the polar angular region between 45° and 135°. Assuming that the only stable weakly interacting particles are light neutrinos with standard model couplings, we determine the number of light neutrino species to be N v = 3.14 ± 0.24 (stat.)±0.12 (syst.). This corresponds to an invisible Z 0 width of Γ inv = 524 ± 40 ± 20 MeV.

A determination of the number of light neutrino families performed by measuring the cross section of single photon production in e + e − collision near the Z resonance is reported. From an integrated luminosity of 100 pb −1 , collected during the years 1991–94, we have observed 2091 single photon candidates with an energy above 1 GeV in the polar angular region 45°< θ γ <135°. From a maximum likelihood fit to the single photon cross section, the Z decay width into invisible particles is measured to be Γ inv =498±12 (stat) ±12 (sys) MeV . Using the Standard Model couplings of neutrinos to the Z, the number of light neutrino species is determined to be N ν =2.98±0.07(stat)±0.07(sys).

We report results of a study of four-lepton final states produced in e + e − collisions at center-of-mass energies from 50 to 61.4 GeV using the AMY detector at the TRISTAN collider. For the cases where two or three charged tracks are produced at large angles relative to the beam direction, the cross sections agree with QED. However, we observe an excess of e + e − → e + e − μ + μ − events with four tracks at wide angles and with dimuon mass less than 1.0 GeV / c 2 .

Measurements of the two-photon interaction e + e − → e + e − + hadrons at s ≃ 91 GeV and s ≃ 183 GeV are presented. The double-tag events, collected with the L3 detector, correspond to interated luminosities of 140 pb −1 at 91 GeV and 52 pb −1 at 183 GeV. The cross-section of γ ∗ γ ∗ collisions has been measured at 〈 Q 2 〉 = 3.5 GeV 2 and 〈 Q 2 〉 = 14 GeV 2 . The data agree well with predictions based on perturbative QCD, while the Quark Parton Model alone is insufficient to describe the data.

The L3 detector at LEP has been used to determine the number of light neutrino families by measuring the cross section of single photon even in e + e − collisions at energies near the Z 0 resonance. We have observed 61 single photon candidates with more than 1.5 GeV of deposited energy in the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter, for a total integrated luminosity of 3.0 pb −1 . From a likelihood fir to the single photon cross sections, we determin N ν =3.24 ± 0.46 ( statistical ) ±0.22 ( systematic ).

Deep inelastic scattering and its diffractive component, ep -> e'gamma*p ->e'XN, have been studied at HERA with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of 4.2 pb-1. The measurement covers a wide range in the gamma*p c.m. energy W (37 - 245 GeV), photon virtuality Q2 (2.2 - 80 GeV2) and mass Mx. The diffractive cross section for Mx > 2 GeV rises strongly with W: the rise is steeper with increasing Q2. The latter observation excludes the description of diffractive deep inelastic scattering in terms of the exchange of a single Pomeron. The ratio of diffractive to total cross section is constant as a function of W, in contradiction to the expectation of Regge phenomenology combined with a naive extension of the optical theorem to gamma*p scattering. Above Mx of 8 GeV, the ratio is flat with Q2, indicating a leading-twist behaviour of the diffractive cross section. The data are also presented in terms of the diffractive structure function, F2D(3)(beta,xpom,Q2), of the proton. For fixed beta, the Q2 dependence of xpom F2D(3) changes with xpom in violation of Regge factorisation. For fixed xpom, xpom F2D(3) rises as beta -> 0, the rise accelerating with increasing Q2. These positive scaling violations suggest substantial contributions of perturbative effects in the diffractive DIS cross section.