The dependence of dijet production on the virtuality of the exchanged photon, Q^2, has been studied by measuring dijet cross sections in the range 0 < Q^2 < 2000 GeV^2 with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 38.6 pb^-1. Dijet cross sections were measured for jets with transverse energy E_T^jet > 7.5 and 6.5 GeV and pseudorapidities in the photon-proton centre-of-mass frame in the range -3 < eta^jet <0. The variable xg^obs, a measure of the photon momentum entering the hard process, was used to enhance the sensitivity of the measurement to the photon structure. The Q^2 dependence of the ratio of low- to high-xg^obs events was measured. Next-to-leading-order QCD predictions were found to generally underestimate the low-xg^obs contribution relative to that at high xg^obs. Monte Carlo models based on leading-logarithmic parton-showers, using a partonic structure for the photon which falls smoothly with increasing Q^2, provide a qualitative description of the data.
The dependence of the photon structure on the photon virtuality, Q^2, is studied by measuring the reaction e^+p\to e^+ + {\rm jet} + {\rm jet} + {\rm X} at photon-proton centre-of-mass energies 134 < W < 223 GeV. Events have been selected in the Q^2 ranges \approx 0 GeV^2, 0.1-0.55 GeV^2, and 1.5-4.5 GeV^2, having two jets with transverse energy E_T^{jet} > 5.5 GeV in the final state. The dijet cross section has been measured as a function of the fractional momentum of the photon participating in the hard process, x_gamma. The ratio of the dijet cross section with x_gamma < 0.75 to that with x_gamma > 0.75 decreases as Q^2 increases. The data are compared with the predictions of NLO pQCD and leading-order Monte Carlo programs using various parton distribution functions of the photon. The measurements can be interpreted in terms of a resolved photon component that falls with Q^2 but remains present at values of Q^2 up to 4.5 GeV^2. However, none of the models considered gives a good description of the data.
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