We report the first observation of Z/gamma* production in Compton scattering of quasi-real photons. This is a subprocess of the reaction e+e- to e+e-Z/gamma*, where one of the final state electrons is undetected. Approximately 55 pb-1 of data collected in the year 1997 at an e+e- centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV with the OPAL detector at LEP have been analysed. The Z/gamma* from Compton scattering has been detected in the hadronic decay channel. Within well defined kinematic bounds, we measure the product of cross-section and Z/gamma* branching ratio to hadrons to be (0.9+-0.3+-0.1) pb for events with a hadronic mass larger than 60 GeV, dominated by (e)eZ production. In the hadronic mass region between 5 GeV and 60 GeV, dominated by (e)egamma* production, this product is found to be (4.1+-1.6+-0.6) pb. Our results agree with the predictions of two Monte Carlo event generators, grc4f and PYTHIA.

Di-jet production is studied in collisions of quasi-real photons radiated by the LEP beams at e+e- centre-of-mass energies 161 and 172 GeV. The jets are reconstructed using a cone jet finding algorithm. The angular distributions of direct and double-resolved processes are measured and compared to the predictions of leading order and next-to-leading order perturbative QCD. The jet energy profiles are also studied. The inclusive two-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse energy and rapidity and compared to next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations. The inclusive two-jet cross-section as a function of rapidity is compared to the prediction of the leading order Monte Carlo generators PYTHIA and PHOJET. The Monte Carlo predictions are calculated with different parametrisations of the parton distributions of the photon. The influence of the `underlying event' has been studied to reduce the model dependence of the predicted jet cross-sections from the Monte Carlo generators.

The production of charged hadrons and K_s mesons in the collisions of quasi-real photons has been measured using the OPAL detector at LEP. The data were taken at e+e- centre-of-mass energies of 161 and 172 GeV. The differential cross-sections as a function of the transverse momentum and the pseudorapidity of the charged hadrons and K_s mesons have been compared to the leading order Monte Carlo simulations of PHOJET and PYTHIA and to perturbative next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD calculations. The distributions have been measured in the range 10-125 GeV of the hadronic invariant mass W. By comparing the transverse momentum distribution of charged hadrons measured in gamma-gamma interactions with gamma-proton and meson-proton data we find evidence for hard photon interactions in addition to the purely hadronic photon interactions.

New measurements are presented of the photon structure function F_2^gamma(Q) at four values of Q^2 between 9 and 59 GeV/c^2 based on data collected with the OPAL detector at centre-of-mass energies of 161-172 GeV, with a total integrated luminosity of 18.1 pb^-1. The evolution of F_2^gamma with Q^2 in bins of x is determined in the Q^2 range from 1.86 to 135 GeV/c^2 using data taken at centre-of-mass energies of 91 GeV and 161-172 GeV. F_2^gamma is observed to increase with Q^2 with a slope of 1/alpha_em dF_2^gamma/dln(Q^2) = 0.10 +0.05 -0.03 measured in the range 0.1 < x < 0.6.

Deep inelastic electron-photon scattering is studied using e+e- data collected by the OPAL detector at centre-of-mass energies sqrt{s_ee} ~ M_{Z^0}. The photon structure function F_2^gamma(x,Q^2) is explored in a Q^2 range of 1.1 to 6.6 GeV/c^2 at lower x values than ever before. To probe this kinematic region events are selected with a beam electron scattered into one of the OPAL luminosity calorimeters at scattering angles between 27 and 55 mrad. A measurement is presented of the photon structure function F_2^gamma(x,Q^2) at <Q^2> = 1.86 GeV^2 and 3.76 GeV^2 in five logarithmic x bins from 0.0025 to 0.2.

Deep inelastic electron-photon scattering is studied in the Q2 ranges from 6 to 30 GeV2 and from 60 to 400 GeV2 using the full sample of LEP data taken with the OPAL detector at centre-of-mass energies close to the Z0 mass, with an integrated luminosity of 156.4 pb−1. Energy flow distributions and other properties of the measured hadronic final state are compared with the predictions of Monte Carlo models, including HERWIG and PYTHIA. Sizeable differences are found between the data and the models, especially at low values of the scaling variable x. New measurements are presented of the photon structure function $F_2^{αmma }(x,Q^2)$, allowing for the first time for uncertainties in the description of the final state by different Monte Carlo models. The differences between the data and the models contribute significantly to the systematic errors on $F_2^{αmma }$. The slope ${⤪ d}(F_2^{αmma }/←pha )/{⤪ d ln} Q^2$ is measured to be $0.13_{-0.04}^{+0.06}$.

Cross-sections and angular distributions for the production of events with single and multiple photons are measured from data recorded with the OPAL detector at the recently upgraded LEP collider. The measured cross-sections are generally consistent with Standard Model expectations for the e + e − → ν v γ(γ) and e + e − → γγ ( γ ) processes. Six events with an acoplanar photon pair and large missing mass are found. The observed number of events is larger than expected from e + e − → ν ν γγ ; however, the missing mass distribution is compatible with the Z 0 resonance. Deviations from QED are constrained by the data on e + e − → γγ ( γ ). Lower limits are set at 95% confidence level on the QED cut-off parameters Λ + and Λ − of 152 GeV and 142 GeV, respectively, and also on the mass of an excited electron of 147 GeV.

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The decay τ−→π−−+vτ has been studied using data collected with the OPAL detector at LEP during 1992 and 1993. The hadronic structure functions for this decay are measured model independently assuming G-parity invariance and neglecting scalar currents. Simultaneously the parity violating asymmetry parameter is determined to be\(\gamma VA = 1.08 _{ - 0.41- 0.25}^{ + 0.46+ 0.14} \), consistent with the Standard Model prediction of γVA=1 for left-handed tau neutrinos. Models of Kühn and Santamaria and of Isgur et al. are used to fit distributions of the invariant 3π mass as well as 2π mass projections of the Dalitz plot. The model dependent mass and width of thea1 resonance are measured to be\(m_{a_1 }= 1.266 \pm 0.014_{ - 0.002}^{ + 0.012} \) GeV and\(\Gamma _{a_1 }= 0.610 \pm 0.049_{ - 0.019}^{ + 0.053} \) GeV for the Kühn and Santamaria model and\(m_{a_1 }= 1.202 \pm 0.009_{ - 0.001}^{ + 0.009} \) GeV and\(\Gamma _{a_1 }= 0.422 \pm 0.023_{ - 0.004}^{ + 0.033} \) GeV for the Isgur et al. model. The model dependent values obtained for the parity violating asymmetry parameter are γVA=0.87±0.27−0.06+0.05 for the Kühn and Santamaria model and γVA=1.10±0.31−0.14+0.13 for the Isgur et al. model. Within the Isgur et al. model the ratio of theS-andD-wave amplitudes is measured to beD/S=−0.09±0.03±0.01.

This paper describes an analysis of sub-jet multiplicities, which are expected to be sensitive to the properties of soft gluon radiation, in hadronic decays of theZ0. Two- and three-jet event samples are selected using thek⊥ jet clustering algorithm at a jet resolution scaley1. The mean sub-jet multiplicity as a function of the sub-jet resolution,y0, is determined separately for both event samples by reapplying the same jet algorithm at resolution scalesy0<y1. These measurements are compared with recent perturbative QCD calculations based on the summation of leading and next-to-leading logarithms, and with QCD Monte Carlo models. The analytic calculations provide a good description of the sub-jet multiplicity seen in three- and two-jet mvents in the perturbative region (y0≈y1)), and the measured form of the data is in agreement with the expectation based on coherence of soft gluon radiation. The analysis provides good discrimination between Monte Carlo models, and those with a coherent parton shower are preferred by the data. The analysis suggests that coherence effects are present in the data.