Measurements have been made of the inclusive scattering of 96, 147, and 219 GeV muons from hydrogen, and of 147 GeV muons from deuterium. Results are presented for the nucleon structure function F2(x,Q2) [≡νW2(x,Q2)] for 10<ν<200 GeV and 0.2<Q2<80 GeV2. The value of F2 rises with Q2 at small x, and falls with Q2 at large x, in agreement with the ideas of quantum chromodynamics. An average value of the ratio σLσT≡R=0.52±0.35 has been obtained for the region 0.003<x<0.10 and 0.4<Q2<30 GeV2. The values of F2 from this experiment have been combined with those from other charged-lepton scattering experiments to determine moments of the structure functions. The variation with Q2 of these moments is used to derive values for Λ, taking into account corrections up to second order in αs. The fit to the data is very good.

The transition between photoproduction and deep-inelastic scattering is investigated in jet production at the HERA ep collider, using data collected by the H1 experiment. Measurements of the differential inclusive jet cross-sections dsigep/dEt* and dsigmep/deta*, where Et* and eta* are the transverse energy and the pseudorapidity of the jets in the virtual photon-proton centre of mass frame, are presented for 0 < Q2 < 49 GeV2 and 0.3 < y < 0.6. The interpretation of the results in terms of the structure of the virtual photon is discussed. The data are best described by QCD calculations which include a partonic structure of the virtual photon that evolves with Q2.

We report on measurements of hadronic and leptonic cross sections and leptonic forward-backward asymmetries performed with the L3 detector in the years 1993-95. A total luminosity of 103 pb^-1 was collected at centre-of-mass energies \sqrt{s} ~ m_Z and \sqrt{s} ~ m_Z +/- 1.8 GeV which corresponds to 2.5 million hadronic and 245 thousand leptonic events selected. These data lead to a significantly improved determination of Z parameters. From the total cross sections, combined with our measurements in 1990-92, we obtain the final results: m_Z = 91189.8 +/- 3.1 MeV, Gamma_Z = 2502.4 +/- 4.2 MeV, Gamma_had = 1741.1 +/- 3.8 MeV, Gamma_l = 84.14 +/- 0.17 MeV. An invisible width of Gamma_inv = 499.1 +/- 2.9 MeV is derived which in the Standard Model yields for the number of light neutrino species N_nu = 2.978 +/- 0.014. Adding our results on the leptonic forward-backward asymmetries and the tau polarisation, the effective vector and axial-vector coupling constants of the neutral weak current to charged leptons are determined to be \bar{g}_V^l = -0.0397 +/- 0.0017 and \bar{g}_A^l = -0.50153 +/- 0.00053.Including our measurements of the Z -> b \bar{b} forward-backward and quark charge asymmetries a value for the effective electroweak mixing angle of sin^2\bar{\theta}_W = 0.23093 +/- 0.00066 is derived. All these measurements are in good agreement with the Standard Model of electroweak interactions. Using all our measurements of electroweak observables an upper limit on the mass of the Standard Model Higgs boson of m_H &lt; 133 GeV is set at 95% confidence level.

Inclusive charged-current interactions of high-energy neutrinos and antineutrinos have been studied with high statistics in a counter experiment at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. The energy dependence of the total cross-sections, the longitudinal structure function, and the nucleon structure functionsF2,xF3, and\(\bar q^{\bar v} \) are determined from these data. The analysis of theQ2-dependence of the structure functions is used to test quantum chromodynamics, to determine the scale parameter Λ and the gluon distribution in the nucleon.

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 x and Q 2 dependence of the single photon exchange cross section d 2 σ /d Q 2 d x and the proton structure functions F 2 ( x , Q 2 ) and R ( x , Q 2 ) have been measured in deep inelastic muon proton scattering in the region 0.02 < x < 0.8 and 3 < Q 2 < 190 GeV 2 . By comparing data at different incident muon energies R was found to have little kinematic dependence and an average value of −0.010 ± 0.037 (stat.) ± 0.102 (stat.). The observed deviations from scaling gave the value of Λ MS , the QCD mass scale parameter, to be 105 −45 +55 (stat.) −45 +85 (syst.) MeV. The fraction of the momentum of the nucleon carried by gluons was found to be ∼56% at Q 2 ∼22.5 GeV 2 . It is shown that to obtain a description of the data for F 2 ( x , Q 2 ) together with that measured in deep inelastic electron-proton scattering at lower Q 2 it is necessary to include additional higher twist contributions. The value of Λ MS remains unchanged with the inclusion of these contributions which were found to have an x -dependence of the form x 3 /(1 − x ).

A new method is employed to measure the neutral current cross section up to Bjorken-x values of one with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 65.1 pb-1 for e+p collisions and 16.7 pb-1 for e-p collisions at sqrt{s}=318 GeV and 38.6 pb-1 for e+p collisions at sqrt{s}=300 GeV. Cross sections have been extracted for Q2 >= 648 GeV2 and are compared to predictions using different parton density functions. For the highest x bins, the data have a tendency to lie above the expectations using recent parton density function parametrizations.

A detailed analysis is presented of the diffractive deep-inelastic scattering process $ep\to eXY$, where $Y$ is a proton or a low mass proton excitation carrying a fraction $1 - \xpom > 0.95$ of the incident proton longitudinal momentum and the squared four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex satisfies $|t|&lt;1 {\rm GeV^2}$. Using data taken by the H1 experiment, the cross section is measured for photon virtualities in the range $3.5 \leq Q^2 \leq 1600 \rm GeV^2$, triple differentially in $\xpom$, $Q^2$ and $\beta = x / \xpom$, where $x$ is the Bjorken scaling variable. At low $\xpom$, the data are consistent with a factorisable $\xpom$ dependence, which can be described by the exchange of an effective pomeron trajectory with intercept $\alphapom(0)= 1.118 \pm 0.008 {\rm (exp.)} ^{+0.029}_{-0.010} {\rm (model)}$. Diffractive parton distribution functions and their uncertainties are determined from a next-to-leading order DGLAP QCD analysis of the $Q^2$ and $\beta$ dependences of the cross section. The resulting gluon distribution carries an integrated fraction of around 70% of the exchanged momentum in the $Q^2$ range studied. Total and differential cross sections are also measured for the diffractive charged current process $e^+ p \to \bar{\nu}_e XY$ and are found to be well described by predictions based on the diffractive parton distributions. The ratio of the diffractive to the inclusive neutral current $ep$ cross sections is studied. Over most of the kinematic range, this ratio shows no significant dependence on $Q^2$ at fixed $\xpom$ and $x$ or on $x$ at fixed $Q^2$ and $\beta$.

Charm production in deep inelastic scattering has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 82 pb^{-1}. Charm has been tagged by reconstructing D^{*+}, D^0, D^{+} and D_s^+ (+ c.c.) charm mesons. The charm hadrons were measured in the kinematic range p_T(D^{*+},D^0,D^{+}) > 3 GeV, p_T(D_s^+)>2 GeV and |\eta(D)| < 1.6 for 1.5 < Q^2 < 1000 GeV^2 and 0.02 < y < 0.7. The production cross sections were used to extract charm fragmentation ratios and the fraction of c quarks hadronising into a particular charm meson in the kinematic range considered. The cross sections were compared to the predictions of next-to-leading-order QCD, and extrapolated to the full kinematic region in p_T(D) and \eta(D) in order to determine the open-charm contribution, F_2^{c\bar{c}}(x,Q^2), to the proton structure function F_2.

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.