We present results on a high statistics study of the proton structure functions F 2 ( x , Q 2 ) and R = σ L / σ T measured in deep inelastic scattering of muons on a hydrogen target. The analysis is based on 1.8 × 10 6 events after all cuts, recorded at beam energies of 100, 120, 200 and 280 GeV and covering a kinematic range 0.06 ⩽ x ⩽ 0.80 and 7 GeV 2 ⩽ Q 2 ⩽260 GeV 2 . At small x , we find R to be different from zero in agreement with predictions of perturbative QCD.

The production of energetic neutrons in $ep$ collisions has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The neutron energy and $p_T^2$ distributions were measured with a forward neutron calorimeter and tracker in a $40 \pb^{-1}$ sample of inclusive deep inelastic scattering (DIS) data and a $6 \pb^{-1}$ sample of photoproduction data. The neutron yield in photoproduction is suppressed relative to DIS for the lower neutron energies and the neutrons have a steeper $p_T^2$ distribution, consistent with the expectation from absorption models. The distributions are compared to HERA measurements of leading protons. The neutron energy and transverse-momentum distributions in DIS are compared to Monte Carlo simulations and to the predictions of particle exchange models. Models of pion exchange incorporating absorption and additional secondary meson exchanges give a good description of the data.

The production of the neutral strange hadrons $K^{0}_{S}$, $\Lambda$ and $\bar{\Lambda}$ has been measured in $ep$ collisions at HERA using the ZEUS detector. Cross sections, baryon-to-meson ratios, relative yields of strange and charged light hadrons, $\Lambda$ ($\bar{\Lambda}$) asymmetry and polarization have been measured in three kinematic regions: $Q^2 > 25 \gev^2$: $5 < Q^2 < 25 \gev^2$: and in photoproduction ($Q^2 \simeq 0$). In photoproduction the presence of two hadronic jets, each with at least $5 \gev$ transverse energy, was required. The measurements agree in general with Monte Carlo models and are consistent with measurements made at $e^+ e^-$ colliders, except for an enhancement of baryon relative to meson production in photoproduction.

The dissociation of virtual photons, $\gamma^{\star} p \to X p$, in events with a large rapidity gap between $X$ and the outgoing proton, as well as in events in which the leading proton was directly measured, has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The data cover photon virtualities $Q^2>2$ GeV$^2$ and $\gamma^{\star} p$ centre-of-mass energies $40&lt;W&lt;240$ GeV, with $M_X>2$ GeV, where $M_X$ is the mass of the hadronic final state, $X$. Leading protons were detected in the ZEUS leading proton spectrometer. The cross section is presented as a function of $t$, the squared four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex and $\Phi$, the azimuthal angle between the positron scattering plane and the proton scattering plane. It is also shown as a function of $Q^2$ and $\xpom$, the fraction of the proton's momentum carried by the diffractive exchange, as well as $\beta$, the Bjorken variable defined with respect to the diffractive exchange.

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.

Characteristics of the hadronic final state of diffractive deep inelastic scattering events, ep -> eXp, were studied in the kinematic range 4 < M_X < 35 GeV, 4 < Q^2 < 150 GeV^2, 70 < W < 250 GeV and 0.0003 < x_pom < 0.03 with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 13.8 pb^{-1}. The events were tagged by identifying the diffractively scattered proton using the leading proton spectrometer. The properties of the hadronic final state, X, were studied in its center-of-mass frame using thrust, thrust angle, sphericity, energy flow, transverse energy flow and ``seagull'' distributions. As the invariant mass of the system increases, the final state becomes more collimated, more aligned and more asymmetric in the average transverse momentum with respect to the direction of the virtual photon. Comparisons of the properties of the hadronic final state with predictions from various Monte Carlo model generators suggest that the final state is dominated by qqg states at the parton level.

Multijet production rates in neutral current deep inelastic scattering have been measured in the range of exchanged boson virtualities 10 < Q2 < 5000 GeV2. The data were taken at the ep collider HERA with centre-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 318 GeV using the ZEUS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 82.2 pb-1. Jets were identified in the Breit frame using the k_T cluster algorithm in the longitudinally invariant inclusive mode. Measurements of differential dijet and trijet cross sections are presented as functions of jet transverse energy E_{T,B}{jet}, pseudorapidity eta_{LAB}{jet} and Q2 with E_{T,B}{jet} > 5 GeV and -1 < eta_{LAB}{jet} < 2.5. Next-to-leading-order QCD calculations describe the data well. The value of the strong coupling constant alpha_s(M_Z), determined from the ratio of the trijet to dijet cross sections, is alpha_s(M_Z) = 0.1179 pm 0.0013(stat.) {+0.0028}_{-0.0046}(exp.) {+0.0064}_{-0.0046}(th.)

Deep inelastic scattering and its diffractive component, ep -> e'gamma*p ->e'XN, have been studied at HERA with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of 4.2 pb-1. The measurement covers a wide range in the gamma*p c.m. energy W (37 - 245 GeV), photon virtuality Q2 (2.2 - 80 GeV2) and mass Mx. The diffractive cross section for Mx > 2 GeV rises strongly with W: the rise is steeper with increasing Q2. The latter observation excludes the description of diffractive deep inelastic scattering in terms of the exchange of a single Pomeron. The ratio of diffractive to total cross section is constant as a function of W, in contradiction to the expectation of Regge phenomenology combined with a naive extension of the optical theorem to gamma*p scattering. Above Mx of 8 GeV, the ratio is flat with Q2, indicating a leading-twist behaviour of the diffractive cross section. The data are also presented in terms of the diffractive structure function, F2D(3)(beta,xpom,Q2), of the proton. For fixed beta, the Q2 dependence of xpom F2D(3) changes with xpom in violation of Regge factorisation. For fixed xpom, xpom F2D(3) rises as beta -> 0, the rise accelerating with increasing Q2. These positive scaling violations suggest substantial contributions of perturbative effects in the diffractive DIS cross section.

The inclusive production of π± andK± mesons and of protons and antiprotons ine+e− annihilation has been measured at c.m. energies ofW=14, 22 and 34GeV. Using time of flight measurements and Cerenkov counters the full momentum range has been covered. Differential cross sections and total particle yields are given. At particle momenta of 0.4 GeV/c more than 90% of the charged hadrons are pions. With increasing momentum the fraction of pions among the charged hadrons decreases. AtW=34 GeV and a momentum of 5 GeV/c the particle fractions are approximately π±:K±:p,\(\bar p = 0.55:0.3:0.15\). On average an event atW=34 GeV contains 10.3±0.4π±, 2.0±0.2K± and 0.8±0.1p,\(\bar p\). In addition, we present results on baryon correlations using a sample of events where two or more protons and/or antiprotons are observed in the final state.

We report on an analysis of the multiplicity distributions of charged particles produced ine+e− annihilation into hadrons at c.m. energies between 14 and 46.8 GeV. The charged multiplicity distributions of the whole event and single hemisphere deviate significantly from the Poisson distribution but follow approximate KNO scaling. We have also studied the multiplicity distributions in various rapidity intervals and found that they can be well described by the negative binomial distribution only for small central intervals. We have also analysed forward-backward multiplicity correlations for different energies and selections of particle charge and shown that they can be understood in terms of the fragmentation properties of the different quark flavours and by the production and decay of resonances. These correlations are well reproduced by the Lund string model.