The inclusive production of charged hadrons in the collisions of quasi-real photons e+e- -> e+e- +X has been measured using the OPAL detector at LEP. The data were taken at e+e- centre-of-mass energies from 183 to 209 GeV. The differential cross-sections as a function of the transverse momentum and the pseudorapidity of the hadrons are compared to theoretical calculations of up to next-to-leading order (NLO) in the strong coupling constant alpha{s}. The data are also compared to a measurement by the L3 Collaboration, in which a large deviation from the NLO predictions is observed.
Inclusive jet production (e+e- -> e+e- +jet+X) is studied in collisions of quasi-real photons radiated by the LEP beams at e+e- centre-of-mass energies sqrt see from 189 to 209 GeV. Jets are reconstructed using the kp jet algorithm. The inclusive differential cross-section is measured as a function of the jet transverse momentum, ptjet, in the range 5 <ptjet < 40 GeV for pseudo-rapidities, etaj, in the range -1.5 < etaj < 1.5. The results are compared to predictions of perturbative QCD in next-to-leading order in the strong coupling constant.
The inclusive production of D*+- mesons in photon-photon collisions has been measured using the OPAL detector at LEP at e+e- centre-of-mass energies of 183 and 189GeV. The D* mesons are reconstructed in their decay to D0pi+ with the D0 observed in the two decay modes Kpi+ and Kpi+pi-pi+. After background subtraction, 100.4+-12.6(stat) D*+- mesons have been selected in events without observed scattered beam electron ("anti-tagged") and 29.8+-5.9 (stat) D*+- mesons in events where one beam electron is scattered into the detector ("single-tagged"). Direct and single-resolved events are studied separately. Differential cross-sections as functions of the D* transverse momentum p_t and pseudorapidity \eta are presented in the kinematic region 2<p_t<12GeV and \eta<1.5. They are compared to next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD calculations. The total cross-section for the process (e+e- to e+e-ccbar), where the charm quarks are produced in the collision of two quasi-real photons, is measured to be 842+-97(stat)+-75(syst)+-196(extrapolation)pb. A first measurement of the charm structure function F2 of the photon is performed in the kinematic range 0.0014<x<0.87 and 5<Q^2<100 GeV^2, and the result is compared to a NLO perturbative QCD calculation.