A new method is employed to measure the neutral current cross section up to Bjorken-x values of one with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 65.1 pb-1 for e+p collisions and 16.7 pb-1 for e-p collisions at sqrt{s}=318 GeV and 38.6 pb-1 for e+p collisions at sqrt{s}=300 GeV. Cross sections have been extracted for Q2 >= 648 GeV2 and are compared to predictions using different parton density functions. For the highest x bins, the data have a tendency to lie above the expectations using recent parton density function parametrizations.
Breakdown of the uncorrelated and correlated systematic errors for the 96-97 E+ P NC scattering data.
The production of neutrons carrying at least 20% of the proton beam energy ($\xl > 0.2$) in $e^+p$ collisions has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA for a wide range of $Q^2$, the photon virtuality, from photoproduction to deep inelastic scattering. The neutron-tagged cross section, $e p\to e' X n$, is measured relative to the inclusive cross section, $e p\to e' X$, thereby reducing the systematic uncertainties. For $\xl >$ 0.3, the rate of neutrons in photoproduction is about half of that measured in hadroproduction, which constitutes a clear breaking of factorisation. There is about a 20% rise in the neutron rate between photoproduction and deep inelastic scattering, which may be attributed to absorptive rescattering in the $\gamma p$ system. For $0.64 < \xl < 0.82$, the rate of neutrons is almost independent of the Bjorken scaling variable $x$ and $Q^2$. However, at lower and higher $\xl$ values, there is a clear but weak dependence on these variables, thus demonstrating the breaking of limiting fragmentation. The neutron-tagged structure function, ${{F}^{\rm\tiny LN(3)}_2}(x,Q^2,\xl)$, rises at low values of $x$ in a way similar to that of the inclusive \ff of the proton. The total $\gamma \pi$ cross section and the structure function of the pion, $F^{\pi}_2(x_\pi,Q^2)$ where $x_\pi = x/(1-\xl)$, have been determined using a one-pion-exchange model, up to uncertainties in the normalisation due to the poorly understood pion flux. At fixed $Q^2$, $F^{\pi}_2$ has approximately the same $x$ dependence as $F_2$ of the proton.
The production of energetic neutrons in $ep$ collisions has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The neutron energy and $p_T^2$ distributions were measured with a forward neutron calorimeter and tracker in a $40 \pb^{-1}$ sample of inclusive deep inelastic scattering (DIS) data and a $6 \pb^{-1}$ sample of photoproduction data. The neutron yield in photoproduction is suppressed relative to DIS for the lower neutron energies and the neutrons have a steeper $p_T^2$ distribution, consistent with the expectation from absorption models. The distributions are compared to HERA measurements of leading protons. The neutron energy and transverse-momentum distributions in DIS are compared to Monte Carlo simulations and to the predictions of particle exchange models. Models of pion exchange incorporating absorption and additional secondary meson exchanges give a good description of the data.
Normalized double differential cross sections for leading neutron production in the photoproduction sample. Statistical errors only are given.
Cross sections for e^+p neutral current deep inelastic scattering have been measured at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt{s}=318 GeV with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 63.2 pb^-1. The double-differential cross section, d^2sigma/dxdQ^2, is presented for 200 GeV^2 < Q^2 < 30000 GeV^2 and for 0.005 < x < 0.65. The single-differential cross-sections dsigma/dQ^2, dsigma/dx and dsigma/dy are presented for Q^2 > 200 GeV^2. The effect of Z-boson exchange is seen in dsigma/dx measured for Q^2 > 10000 GeV^2. The data presented here were combined with ZEUS e^+p neutral current data taken at sqrt{s}=300 GeV and the structure function F_2^{em} was extracted. All results agree well with the predictions of the Standard Model.
The reduced cross section SIG(C=RED) for Q**2 in the range 15000 to 25000 GeV**2 corrected to the electroweak Born level.
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