A precise measurement of the cross section of the process $e^+e^-\to\pi^+\pi^-(\gamma)$ from threshold to an energy of 3GeV is obtained with the initial-state radiation (ISR) method using 232fb$^{-1}$ of data collected with the BaBar detector at $e^+e^-$ center-of-mass energies near 10.6GeV. The ISR luminosity is determined from a study of the leptonic process $e^+e^-\to\mu^+\mu^-(\gamma)\gamma_{\rm ISR}$, which is found to agree with the next-to-leading-order QED prediction to within 1.1%. The cross section for the process $e^+e^-\to\pi^+\pi^-(\gamma)$ is obtained with a systematic uncertainty of 0.5% in the dominant $\rho$ resonance region. The leading-order hadronic contribution to the muon magnetic anomaly calculated using the measured $\pi\pi$ cross section from threshold to 1.8GeV is $(514.1 \pm 2.2({\rm stat}) \pm 3.1({\rm syst}))\times 10^{-10}$.

We present measurements of the total production rates and momentum distributions of the charmed baryon $\Lambda_c^+$ in $e^+e^- \to$ hadrons at a center-of-mass energy of 10.54 GeV and in $\Upsilon(4S)$ decays. In hadronic events at 10.54 GeV, charmed hadrons are almost exclusively leading particles in $e^+e^- \to c\bar{c}$ events, allowing direct studies of $c$-quark fragmentation. We measure a momentum distribution for $\Lambda_c^+$ baryons that differs significantly from those measured previously for charmed mesons. Comparing with a number of models, we find none that can describe the distribution completely. We measure an average scaled momentum of $\left< x_p \right> = 0.574\pm$0.009 and a total rate of $N_{\Lambda c}^{q\bar{q}} = 0.057\pm$0.002(exp.)$\pm$0.015(BF) $\Lambda_c^+$ per hadronic event, where the experimental error is much smaller than that due to the branching fraction into the reconstructed decay mode, $pK^-\pi^+$. In $\Upsilon (4S)$ decays we measure a total rate of $N_{\Lambda c}^{\Upsilon} = 0.091\pm$0.006(exp.)$\pm$0.024(BF) per $\Upsilon(4S)$ decay, and find a much softer momentum distribution than expected from B decays into a $\Lambda_c^+$ plus an antinucleon and one to three pions.

We study the process $e^+e^-\to\pi^+\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-\gamma$, with a hard photon radiated from the initial state. About 60,000 fully reconstructed events have been selected from 89 $fb^{-1}$ of BaBar data. The invariant mass of the hadronic final state defines the effective \epem center-of-mass energy, so that these data can be compared with the corresponding direct $e^+e^-$ measurements. From the $4\pi$-mass spectrum, the cross section for the process $e^+e^-\to\pi^+\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-$ is measured for center-of-mass energies from 0.6 to 4.5 $GeV/c^2$. The uncertainty in the cross section measurement is typically 5%. We also measure the cross sections for the final states $K^+ K^- \pi^+\pi^-$ and $K^+ K^- K^+ K^-$. We observe the $J/\psi$ in all three final states and measure the corresponding branching fractions. We search for X(3872) in $J/\psi (\to\mu^+\mu^-) \pi^+\pi^-$ and obtain an upper limit on the product of the $e^+e^-$ width of the X(3872) and the branching fraction for $X(3872) \to J/\psi\pi^+\pi^-$.

Neutral current single pi0 production induced by neutrinos with a mean energy of 1.3 GeV is measured at a 1000 ton water Cherenkov detector as a near detector of the K2K long baseline neutrino experiment. The cross section for this process relative to the total charged current cross section is measured to be 0.064 +- 0.001 (stat.) +- 0.007 (sys.). The momentum distribution of produced pi0s is measured and is found to be in good agreement with an expectation from the present knowledge of the neutrino cross sections.

The process e+e- --> pi+ pi- pi0 gamma has been studied at a center-of-mass energy near the Y(4S) resonance using a 89.3 fb-1 data sample collected with the BaBar detector at the PEP-II collider. From the measured 3pi mass spectrum we have obtained the products of branching fractions for the omega and phi mesons, B(omega --> e+e-)B(omega --> 3pi)=(6.70 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.27)10-5 and B(phi --> e+e-)B(phi --> 3pi)=(4.30 +/- 0.08 +/- 0.21)10-5, and evaluated the e+e- --> pi+ pi- pi0 cross section for the e+e- center-of-mass energy range 1.05 to 3.00 GeV. About 900 e+e- --> J/psi gamma --> pi+ pi- pi0 gamma events have been selected and the branching fraction B(J/psi --> pi+ pi- pi0)=(2.18 +/- 0.19)% has been measured.

We have determined the strong coupling $\as$ from a comprehensive study of energy-energy correlations ($EEC$) and their asymmetry ($AEEC$) in hadronic decays of $Z~0$ bosons collected by the SLD experiment at SLAC. The data were compared with all four available predictions of QCD calculated up to $\Oa2$ in perturbation theory, and also with a resummed calculation matched to all four of these calculations. We find large discrepancies between $\as$ values extracted from the different $\Oa2$ calculations. We also find a large renormalization scale ambiguity in $\as$ determined from the $EEC$ using the $\Oa2$ calculations; this ambiguity is reduced in the case of the $AEEC$, and is very small when the matched calculations are used. Averaging over all calculations, and over the $EEC$ and $AEEC$ results, we obtain $\asz=0.124~{+0.003}_{-0.004} (exp.) \pm 0.009 (theory).$

The photon structure function F 2 has been measured at average Q 2 values of 73,160 and 390 ( GeV c ) 2 . We compare the x dependence of the Q 2 = 73 ( GeV c ) 2 data with theoretical expectations based on QCD. In addition we present results on the Q 2 evolution of the structure function for the intermediate x range (0.3⩽ x ⩽0.8). The results are consistent with QCD.

The Crystal Ball detector has been used at the DORIS II storage ring at DESY to study the reactionγγ→π0π0π0 in theπ0π0π0 invariant mass range from 850 MeV/c2 to 2600 MeV/c2. An enhancement around 1750 MeV/c2 is attributed to theπ2(1670) resonance. The observedπ0π0 invariant mass distribution and theπ0 angular distributions are consistent with those expected for the decay chainπ2→π0f2(1270)→π0π0π0. From our measurements we find the following resonance parameters: two photon partial width\(\Gamma _{\pi _2 }^{\gamma \gamma }= (1.41 \pm 0.23 \pm 0.28)keV\), massM(π2)=(1742±31±49)MeV/c2. and total width\(\Gamma _{\pi _2 }^{tot}= (236 \pm 49 \pm 36)MeV\).

The reaction e+e−→e+e−π0π0 has been analyzed using 97 pb−1 of data taken with the Crystal Ball detector at the DESY e−e+ storage ring DORIS II at beam energies around 5.3 GeV. For the first time we have measured the cross section for γγ→π0π0 for π0π0 mvariant masses ranging from threshold to about 2 GeV. We measure an approximately flat cross section of about 10 nb for W=mπ0π0<0.8 GeV, which is below 0.6 GeV, in good agreement with a theoretical prediction based on an unitarized Born-term model. At higher invariant masses we observe formation of the f2(1270) resonance and a hint of the f0(975). We deduce the following two-photon widths: Γγγ(f2(1270))=3.19±0.16±0.280.29 keV and Γγγ(f0(975))<0.53 keV at 90% C.L. The decay-angular distributions show the π0π0 system to be dominantly spin 0 for W<0.7 GeV and spin 2, helicity 2 in the f2(1270) region, with helicity 0 contributing at most 22% (90% C.L.).