Measurements of neutral current cross sections for deep inelastic scattering in e+p collisions at HERA with a longitudinally polarised positron beam are presented. The single-differential cross-sections d(sigma)/dQ2, d(sigma)/dx and d(sigma)/dy and the reduced cross-section were measured in the kinematic region Q2 > 185 GeV2 and y < 0.9, where Q2 is the four-momentum transfer squared, x the Bjorken scaling variable, and y the inelasticity of the interaction. The measurements were performed separately for positively and negatively polarised positron beams. The measurements are based on an integrated luminosity of 135.5 pb-1 collected with the ZEUS detector in 2006 and 2007 at a centre-of-mass energy of 318 GeV. The structure functions F3 and F3(gamma)Z were determined by combining the e+p results presented in this paper with previously published e-p neutral current results. The asymmetry parameter A+ is used to demonstrate the parity violation predicted in electroweak interactions. The measurements are well described by the predictions of the Standard Model.

Jet cross sections were measured in charged current deep inelastic e+-p scattering at high boson virtualities Q^2 with the ZEUS detector at HERA II using an integrated luminosity of 0.36 fb^-1. Differential cross sections are presented for inclusive-jet production as functions of Q^2, Bjorken x and the jet transverse energy and pseudorapidity. The dijet invariant mass cross section is also presented. Observation of three- and four-jet events in charged-current e+-p processes is reported for the first time. The predictions of next-to-leading-order (NLO) QCD calculations are compared to the measurements. The measured inclusive-jet cross sections are well described in shape and normalization by the NLO predictions. The data have the potential to constrain the u and d valence quark distributions in the proton if included as input to global fits.

The production of D*+-(2010) mesons in deep inelastic scattering has been measured in the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 37 pb^-1. The decay channels D*+ -> D0 pi+(+c.c.), with D0 -> K- pi+ or D0 ->K- pi- pi+ pi+, have been used to identify the D mesons. The e+p cross section for inclusive D*+- production with 1<Q^2<600 GeV^2 and 0.02<y<0.7 is 8.31 +- 0.31(stat.) +0.30-0.50(syst.) nb in the kinematic region 1.5< pT(D*+-)<15 GeV and |eta(D*+-)|<1.5. Differential cross sections are consistent with a next-to-leading-order perturbative-QCD calculation when using charm-fragmentation models which take into account the interaction of the charm quark with the proton remnant. The observed cross section is extrapolated to the full kinematic region in pT(D*+-) and eta(D*+-) in order to determine the charm contribution, F^ccbar_2(x,Q^2), to the proton structure function. The ratio F^ccbar_2/F_2 rises from ~10% at Q^2 ~1.8 GeV^2 to ~30% at Q^2 ~130 GeV^2 for x values in the range 10^-4 to 10-3.

The cross section for dijet photoproduction at high transverse energies is presented as a function of the transverse energies and the pseudorapidities of the jets. The measurement is performed using a sample of ep-interactions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 6.3 pb^(-1), recorded by the ZEUS detector.Jets are defined by applying a k_T-clustering algorithm to the hadrons observed in the final state. The measured cross sections are compared to next-to-leading order QCD calculations. In a kinematic regime where theoretical uncertainties are expected to be small, the measured cross sections are higher than these calculations.

A measurement of the proton structure function F_2(x,Q^2) is presented in the kinematic range 0.045 GeV^2 < Q^2 < 0.65 GeV^2 and 6*10^{-7} < x < 1*10^{-3}. The results were obtained using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.9pb^-1 in e^+p reactions recorded with the ZEUS detector at HERA. Information from a silicon-strip tracking detector, installed in front of the small electromagnetic calorimeter used to measure the energy of the final-state positron at small scattering angles, together with an enhanced simulation of the hadronic final state, has permitted the extension of the kinematic range beyond that of previous measurements. The uncertainties in F_2 are typically less than 4%. At the low Q^2 values of the present measurement, the rise of F_2 at low x is slower than observed in HERA data at higher Q^2 and can be described by Regge theory with a constant logarithmic slope. The dependence of F_2 on Q^2 is stronger than at higher Q^2 values, approaching, at the lowest Q^2 values of this measurement, a region where F_2 becomes nearly proportional to Q^2.

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 < Q^2 < 1000 GeV^2 using 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 Q^2, Bjorken x, jet transverse 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 Q^2. The running beauty-quark mass, m_b at the scale m_b, was determined from a QCD fit at next-to-leading order to HERA data for the first time and found to be 4.07 \pm 0.14 (fit} ^{+0.01}_{-0.07} (mod.) ^{+0.05}_{-0.00} (param.) ^{+0.08}_{-0.05} (theo) GeV.

Dijet cross sections are presented using photoproduction data obtained with the ZEUS detector during 1994. These measurements represent an extension of previous results, as the higher statistics allow cross sections to be measured at higher jet transverse energy (ETJ). Jets are identified in the hadronic final state using three different algorithms, and the cross sections compared to complete next-to-leading order QCD calculations. Agreement with these calculations is seen for the pseudorapidity dependence of the direct photon events with ETJ > 6 GeV and of the resolved photon events with ETJ > 11 GeV. Calculated cross sections for resolved photon processes with 6 GeV < ETJ < 11 GeV lie below the data.

The charged multiplicity distributions and the mean charged multiplicity have been investigated in inclusive neutral current deep inelastic $ep$ scattering with the ZEUS detector at HERA, using an integrated luminosity of 38.6 pb$^{-1}$. The measurements were performed in the current region of the Breit frame, as well as in the current fragmentation region of the hadronic centre-of-mass frame. The KNO-scaling properties of the data were investigated and the energy dependence was studied using different energy scales. The data are compared to results obtained in $\epem$ collisions and to previous DIS measurements as well as to leading-logarithm parton-shower Monte Carlo predictions.

The shapes of jets with transverse energies, E_T(jet), up to 45 GeV produced in neutral- and charged-current deep inelastic e+p scattering (DIS) at Q**2 > 100 GeV**2 have been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA. Jets are identified using a cone algorithm in the eta-phi plane with a cone radius of one unit. The jets become narrower as E_T(jet) increases. The jet shapes in neutral- and charged-current DIS are found to be very similar. The jets in neutral-current DIS are narrower than those in resolved processes in photoproduction and closer to those in direct-photon processes for the same ranges in E_T(jet) and jet pseudorapidity. The jet shapes in DIS are observed to be similar to those in e+e- interactions and narrower than those in pbarp collisions for comparable E_T(jet). Since the jets in e+e- interactions and e+p DIS are predominantly quark initiated in both cases, the similarity in the jet shapes indicates that the pattern of QCD radiation within a quark jet is to a large extent independent of the hard scattering process in these reactions.

The DIS diffractive cross section, $d\sigma^{diff}_{\gamma^* p \to XN}/dM_X$, has been measured in the mass range $M_X < 15$ GeV for $\gamma^*p$ c.m. energies $60 < W < 200$ GeV and photon virtualities $Q^2 = 7$ to 140 GeV$^2$. For fixed $Q^2$ and $M_X$, the diffractive cross section rises rapidly with $W$, $d\sigma^{diff}_{\gamma^*p \to XN}(M_X,W,Q^2)/dM_X \propto W^{a^{diff}}$ with $a^{diff} = 0.507 \pm 0.034 (stat)^{+0.155}_{-0.046}(syst)$ corresponding to a $t$-averaged pomeron trajectory of $\bar{\alphapom} = 1.127 \pm 0.009 (stat)^{+0.039}_{-0.012} (syst)$ which is larger than $\bar{\alphapom}$ observed in hadron-hadron scattering. The $W$ dependence of the diffractive cross section is found to be the same as that of the total cross section for scattering of virtual photons on protons. The data are consistent with the assumption that the diffractive structure function $F^{D(3)}_2$ factorizes according to $\xpom F^{D(3)}_2 (\xpom,\beta,Q^2) = (x_0/ \xpom)^n F^{D(2)}_2(\beta,Q^2)$. They are also consistent with QCD based models which incorporate factorization breaking. The rise of $\xpom F^{D(3)}_2$ with decreasing $\xpom$ and the weak dependence of $F^{D(2)}_2$ on $Q^2$ suggest a substantial contribution from partonic interactions.