Dijet production by almost real photons has been studied at HERA with the ZEUS detector. Jets have been identified using the cone algorithm. A cut on xg, the fraction of the photon energy participating in the production of the two jets of highest transverse energy, is used to define cross sections sensitive to the parton distributions in the proton and in the photon. The dependence of the dijet cross sections on pseudorapidity has been measured for xg $\ge 0.75$ and xg $< 0.75$. The former is sensitive to the gluon momentum density in the proton. The latter is sensitive to the gluon in the photon. The cross sections are corrected for detector acceptance and compared to leading order QCD calculations.

Cross sections for e^-p neutral current deep inelastic scattering have been measured at a centre-of-mass energy of 318 GeV using an integrated luminosity of 15.9 pb^-1 collected with the ZEUS detector at HERA. Results on the double-differential cross-section d^2s/dxdQ^2 in the range 185 < Q^2 < 50000 GeV^2 and 0.0037 < x < 0.75, as well as the single-differential cross-sections ds/dQ^2, ds/dx and ds/dy for Q^2 > 200 GeV^2, are presented. To study the effect of Z-boson exchange, ds/dx has also been measured for Q^2 > 10000 GeV^2. The structure function xF_3 has been extracted by combining the e^-p results presented here with the recent ZEUS measurements of e^+p neutral current deep inelastic scattering. All results agree well with the predictions of the Standard Model.

The exclusive photoproduction of J/psi mesons, gamma p->J/psi p, has been studied in ep collisions with the ZEUS detector at HERA, in the kinematic range 20<W<290 GeV, where W is the photon-proton centre-of-mass energy. The J/psi mesons were reconstructed in the muon and the electron decay channels using integrated luminosities of 38 pb^-1 and 55 pb^-1, respectively. The helicity structure of J/psi production shows that the hypothesis of s-channel helicity conservation is satisfied at the two standard-deviation level. The total cross section and the differential cross-section dsigma/dt, where t is the squared four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex, are presented as a function of W, for |t|<1.8 GeV^2. The t distribution exhibits an exponential shape with a slope parameter increasing logarithmically with W with a value b=4.15 \pm 0.05 (stat.)^{+0.30}_{-0.18} (syst.) GeV^-2 at W=90 GeV. The effective parameters of the Pomeron trajectory are alphapom(0) = 1.200 \pm 0.009(stat.)^{+0.004}_{-0.010}(syst.) and alphappom= 0.115 \pm 0.018(stat.)^{+0.008}_{-0.015}(syst.) GeV^-2.

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 D*+-(2010) mesons in deep inelastic scattering has been measured in the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 37 pb^-1. The decay channels D*+ -> D0 pi+(+c.c.), with D0 -> K- pi+ or D0 ->K- pi- pi+ pi+, have been used to identify the D mesons. The e+p cross section for inclusive D*+- production with 1<Q^2<600 GeV^2 and 0.02<y<0.7 is 8.31 +- 0.31(stat.) +0.30-0.50(syst.) nb in the kinematic region 1.5< pT(D*+-)<15 GeV and |eta(D*+-)|<1.5. Differential cross sections are consistent with a next-to-leading-order perturbative-QCD calculation when using charm-fragmentation models which take into account the interaction of the charm quark with the proton remnant. The observed cross section is extrapolated to the full kinematic region in pT(D*+-) and eta(D*+-) in order to determine the charm contribution, F^ccbar_2(x,Q^2), to the proton structure function. The ratio F^ccbar_2/F_2 rises from ~10% at Q^2 ~1.8 GeV^2 to ~30% at Q^2 ~130 GeV^2 for x values in the range 10^-4 to 10-3.

The cross section for dijet photoproduction at high transverse energies is presented as a function of the transverse energies and the pseudorapidities of the jets. The measurement is performed using a sample of ep-interactions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 6.3 pb^(-1), recorded by the ZEUS detector.Jets are defined by applying a k_T-clustering algorithm to the hadrons observed in the final state. The measured cross sections are compared to next-to-leading order QCD calculations. In a kinematic regime where theoretical uncertainties are expected to be small, the measured cross sections are higher than these calculations.

Inclusive photoproduction of D*+- mesons has been measured for photon-proton centre-of-mass energies in the range 130 < W < 280 GeV and a photon virtuality Q^2 < 1 GeV^2. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 37 pb^-1. Total and differential cross sections as functions of the D* transverse momentum and pseudorapidity are presented in restricted kinematical regions and the data are compared with next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD calculations using the "massive charm" and "massless charm" schemes. The measured cross sections are generally above the NLO calculations, in particular in the forward (proton) direction. The large data sample also allows the study of dijet production associated with charm. A significant resolved as well as a direct photon component contribute to the cross section. Leading order QCD Monte Carlo calculations indicate that the resolved contribution arises from a significant charm component in the photon. A massive charm NLO parton level calculation yields lower cross sections compared to the measured results in a kinematic region where the resolved photon contribution is significant.

The DIS diffractive cross section, $d\sigma^{diff}_{\gamma^* p \to XN}/dM_X$, has been measured in the mass range $M_X < 15$ GeV for $\gamma^*p$ c.m. energies $60 < W < 200$ GeV and photon virtualities $Q^2 = 7$ to 140 GeV$^2$. For fixed $Q^2$ and $M_X$, the diffractive cross section rises rapidly with $W$, $d\sigma^{diff}_{\gamma^*p \to XN}(M_X,W,Q^2)/dM_X \propto W^{a^{diff}}$ with $a^{diff} = 0.507 \pm 0.034 (stat)^{+0.155}_{-0.046}(syst)$ corresponding to a $t$-averaged pomeron trajectory of $\bar{\alphapom} = 1.127 \pm 0.009 (stat)^{+0.039}_{-0.012} (syst)$ which is larger than $\bar{\alphapom}$ observed in hadron-hadron scattering. The $W$ dependence of the diffractive cross section is found to be the same as that of the total cross section for scattering of virtual photons on protons. The data are consistent with the assumption that the diffractive structure function $F^{D(3)}_2$ factorizes according to $\xpom F^{D(3)}_2 (\xpom,\beta,Q^2) = (x_0/ \xpom)^n F^{D(2)}_2(\beta,Q^2)$. They are also consistent with QCD based models which incorporate factorization breaking. The rise of $\xpom F^{D(3)}_2$ with decreasing $\xpom$ and the weak dependence of $F^{D(2)}_2$ on $Q^2$ suggest a substantial contribution from partonic interactions.

Differential dijet cross sections have been measured with the ZEUS detector for photoproduction events in which the hadronic final state containing the jets is separated with respect to the outgoing proton direction by a large rapidity gap. The cross section has been measured as a function of the fraction of the photon (x_gamma^OBS) and pomeron (beta^OBS) momentum participating in the production of the dijet system. The observed x_gamma^OBS dependence shows evidence for the presence of a resolved- as well as a direct-photon component. The measured cross section d(sigma)/d(beta^OBS) increases as beta^OBS increases indicating that there is a sizeable contribution to dijet production from those events in which a large fraction of the pomeron momentum participates in the hard scattering. These cross sections and the ZEUS measurements of the diffractive structure function can be described by calculations based on parton densities in the pomeron which evolve according to the QCD evolution equations and include a substantial hard momentum component of gluons in the pomeron.

Exclusive production of $\rho^0$ and $J/\psi$ mesons in e^+ p collisions has been studied with the ZEUS detector in the kinematic range $0.25 < Q^2 < 50 GeV^2, 20 < W < 167 GeV$ for the $\rho^0$ data and $2 < Q^2 < 40 GeV^2, 50 < W < 150 GeV$ for the $J/\psi$ data. Cross sections for exclusive $\rho^0$ and $J/\psi$ production have been measured as a function of $Q^2, W$ and $t$. The spin-density matrix elements $r^{04}_{00}, r^1_{1-1}$ and $Re r^{5}_{10}$ have been determined for exclusive $\rho^0$ production as well as $r^{04}_{00}$ and $r^{04}_{1-1}$ for exclusive $J/\psi$ production. The results are discussed in the context of theoretical models invoking soft and hard phenomena.