Inclusive production of ifπ ± , K ± and p has been studied near charm threshold for c.m. energies between 3.6 and 5.2 GeV. Differential and scaling cross sections together with particle multiplicities have been determinated. By comparing data below and above charm threshold the charm contribution to if π ± and K ± production has been extracted. A comparison has been made between inclusice p production and inelastic electron-proton scattering. To study differences between three-gluon annihilation and two-quark production of the spectra from J/ decay and from non-resonant production at 3.6 GeV has been compared.

The folded differential cross sections dσdΩ(θ*)+dσdΩ(π−θ*), where θ* is the center-of-mass angle of the negatively charged outgoing particle, have been measured for the reactions p¯p→π−π+ and K−K+ at 15 incident beam momenta between 360 and 760 MeV/c with much better statistics than previous experiments. The total cross sections for these reactions, σπ−π+ and σκ−κ+, have also been obtained by integrating the folded differential cross sections. The folded differential cross sections of both reactions show a similar behavior at all measured beam momenta, characterized by a prominent peak at |cosθ*|=1. The cross section σπ−π+ shows a smooth but rapidly decreasing behavior as the beam momentum increases up to 550 MeV/c, whereas σκ−κ+ shows a smooth and flat momentum dependence. These results are compared with some theoretical calculations based on nonrelativistic quark models. Although the shape of the folded differential cross section of the p¯p→π−π+ reaction is rather well reproduced by these models, that of the p¯p→K−K+ reaction, and, in particular, the prominent peak at |cosθ*|=1 cannot be explained at all. The information from other experiments indicates that this discrepancy is most pronounced at the backward angles. Moreover, the momentum dependence of both σπ−π+ and σκ−κ+ is not satisfactorily reproduced by these models.

The photoproduction of ρ0-mesons and Δ-baryons at photon energies up to 2.6 GeV has been studied with the SAPHIR detector at the electron stretcher ELSA. Total and differential cross-sections were obt

The cross section for the diffractive deep-inelastic scattering process $ep \to e X p$ is measured, with the leading final state proton detected in the H1 Forward Proton Spectrometer. The data analysed cover the range \xpom <0.1 in fractional proton longitudinal momentum loss, 0.08 < |t| < 0.5 GeV^{-2} in squared four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex, 2 < Q^2 < 50 GeV^2 in photon virtuality and 0.004 < \beta = x / \xpom < 1, where x is the Bjorken scaling variable. For $\xpom \lapprox 10^{-2}$, the differential cross section has a dependence of approximately ${\rm d} \sigma / {\rm d} t \propto e^{6 t}$, independently of \xpom, \beta and Q^2 within uncertainties. The cross section is also measured triple differentially in \xpom, \beta and Q^2. The \xpom dependence is interpreted in terms of an effective pomeron trajectory with intercept $\alpha_{\pom}(0)=1.114 \pm 0.018 ({\rm stat.}) \pm 0.012 ({\rm syst.}) ^{+0.040}_{-0.020} ({\rm model})$ and a sub-leading exchange. The data are in good agreement with an H1 measurement for which the event selection is based on a large gap in the rapidity distribution of the final state hadrons, after accounting for proton dissociation contributions in the latter. Within uncertainties, the dependence of the cross section on x and Q^2 can thus be factorised from the dependences on all studied variables which characterise the proton vertex, for both the pomeron and the sub-leading exchange.

Cross sections have been measured for the reactions p¯p→π+π− and K+K− at 15 incident-beam momenta between 360 and 760 MeV/c with significantly better statistics than previous experiments in this momentum region. No significant structure has been found in either channel. The values of 90%-confidence-level upper limits for the possible resonance cross sections are given.

A measurement is presented of dijet and 3-jet cross sections in low-|t| diffractive deep-inelastic scattering interactions of the type ep -> eXY, where the system X is separated by a large rapidity gap from a low-mass baryonic system Y. Data taken with the H1 detector at HERA, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 18.0 pb^(-1), are used to measure hadron level single and double differential cross sections for 4<Q^2<80 GeV^2, x_pom<0.05 and p_(T,jet)>4 GeV. The energy flow not attributed to jets is also investigated. The measurements are consistent with a factorising diffractive exchange with trajectory intercept close to 1.2 and tightly constrain the dominating diffractive gluon distribution. Viewed in terms of the diffractive scattering of partonic fluctuations of the photon, the data require the dominance of qqbarg over qqbar states. Soft colour neutralisation models in their present form cannot simultaneously reproduce the shapes and the normalisations of the differential cross sections. Models based on 2-gluon exchange are able to reproduce the shapes of the cross sections at low x_pom values.

Diffractive electroproduction of rho and phi mesons is measured at HERA with the H1 detector in the elastic and proton dissociative channels. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 51 pb^-1. About 10500 rho and 2000 phi events are analysed in the kinematic range of squared photon virtuality 2.5 &lt; Q^2 &lt; 60 GeV^2, photon-proton centre of mass energy 35 &lt; W &lt; 180 GeV and squared four-momentum transfer to the proton |t| &lt; 3 GeV^2. The total, longitudinal and transverse cross sections are measured as a function of Q^2, W and |t|. The measurements show a transition to a dominantly "hard" behaviour, typical of high gluon densities and small q\bar{q} dipoles, for Q^2 larger than 10 to 20 GeV^2. They support flavour independence of the diffractive exchange, expressed in terms of the scaling variable (Q^2 + M_V^2)/4, and proton vertex factorisation. The spin density matrix elements are measured as a function of kinematic variables. The ratio of the longitudinal to transverse cross sections, the ratio of the helicity amplitudes and their relative phases are extracted. Several of these measurements have not been performed before and bring new information on the dynamics of diffraction in a QCD framework. The measurements are discussed in the context of models using generalised parton distributions or universal dipole cross sections.

The reactions gamma p --> K+ Lambda and gamma p --> K+ Sigma0 were measured in the energy range from threshold up to a photon energy of 2.6 GeV. The data were taken with the SAPHIR detector at the electron stretcher facility, ELSA. Results on cross sections and hyperon polarizations are presented as a function of kaon production angle and photon energy. The total cross section for Lambda production rises steeply with energy close to threshold, whereas the Sigma0 cross section rises slowly to a maximum at about E_gamma = 1.45 GeV. Cross sections together with their angular decompositions into Legendre polynomials suggest contributions from resonance production for both reactions. In general, the induced polarization of Lambda has negative values in the kaon forward direction and positive values in the backward direction. The magnitude varies with energy. The polarization of Sigma0 follows a similar angular and energy dependence as that of Lambda, but with opposite sign.

The diffractive process ep \rightarrow eXY, where Y denotes a proton or its low mass excitation with MY < 1.6 GeV, is studied with the H1 experiment at HERA. The analysis is restricted to the phase space region of the photon virtuality 3 \leq Q2 \leq 1600 GeV2, the square of the four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex |t| < 1.0 GeV2 and the longitudinal momentum fraction of the incident proton carried by the colourless exchange xIP < 0.05. Triple differential cross sections are measured as a function of xIP, Q2 and beta = x/xIP where x is the Bjorken scaling variable. These measurements are made after selecting diffractive events by demanding a large empty rapidity interval separating the final state hadronic systems X and Y . High statistics measurements covering the data taking periods 1999-2000 and 2004-2007 are combined with previously published results in order to provide a single set of diffractive cross sections from the H1 experiment using the large rapidity gap selection method. The combined data represent a factor between three and thirty increase in statistics with respect to the previously published results. The measurements are compared with predictions from NLO QCD calculations based on diffractive parton densities and from a dipole model. The proton vertex factorisation hypothesis is tested.

Measurements of the midrapidity transverse energy distribution, $d\Et/d\eta$, are presented for $p$$+$$p$, $d$$+$Au, and Au$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV and additionally for Au$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=62.4$ and 130 GeV. The $d\Et/d\eta$ distributions are first compared with the number of nucleon participants $N_{\rm part}$, number of binary collisions $N_{\rm coll}$, and number of constituent-quark participants $N_{qp}$ calculated from a Glauber model based on the nuclear geometry. For Au$+$Au, $\mean{d\Et/d\eta}/N_{\rm part}$ increases with $N_{\rm part}$, while $\mean{d\Et/d\eta}/N_{qp}$ is approximately constant for all three energies. This indicates that the two component ansatz, $dE_{T}/d\eta \propto (1-x) N_{\rm part}/2 + x N_{\rm coll}$, which has been used to represent $E_T$ distributions, is simply a proxy for $N_{qp}$, and that the $N_{\rm coll}$ term does not represent a hard-scattering component in $E_T$ distributions. The $dE_{T}/d\eta$ distributions of Au$+$Au and $d$$+$Au are then calculated from the measured $p$$+$$p$ $E_T$ distribution using two models that both reproduce the Au$+$Au data. However, while the number-of-constituent-quark-participant model agrees well with the $d$$+$Au data, the additive-quark model does not.