The exclusive production of $\rho~0$ mesons in deep inelastic electron-proton scattering has been studied using the ZEUS detector. Cross sections have been measured in the range $7 < Q~2 < 25$ GeV$~2$ for $\gamma~*p$ centre of mass (c.m.) energies from 40 to 130 GeV. The $\gamma~*p \rightarrow \rho~0 p$ cross section exhibits a $Q~{-(4.2 \pm 0.8 ~{+1.4}_{-0.5})}$ dependence and both longitudinally and transversely polarised $\rho~0$'s are observed. The $\gamma~*p \rightarrow \rho~0 p$ cross section rises strongly with increasing c.m. energy, when compared with NMC data at lower energy, which cannot be explained by production through soft pomeron exchange. The data are compared with perturbative QCD calculations where the rise in the cross section reflects the increase in the gluon density at low $x$. the gluon density at low $x$.

Elastic $\rho~0$ photoproduction has been measured using the ZEUS detector at HERA. Untagged photoproduction events from $ep$ interactions were used to measure the reaction $\gamma p \rightarrow \rho~0 p$ ($\rho~0 \rightarrow \pi~+ \pi~-$) at photon-proton centre-of-mass energies between 60 and 80GeV and $|t|&lt;0.5$GeV$~2$, where $t$ is the square of the four-momentum transferred at the proton vertex. The differential cross section $d\sigma/dM_{\pi\pi}$, where $M_{\pi\pi}$ is the invariant mass of the two pions, and the integrated cross section, $\sigma_{\gamma p\rightarrow \rho~0 p}$, are presented; the latter was measured to be $14.7\pm 0.4(\mbox{stat.})\pm2.4(\mbox{syst.})\mu\mbox{b}$. The differential cross section $d\sigma/dt$ has an approximately exponential shape; a fit of the type $A~{\prime}_{t} \exp{(-b~{\prime}_{t}|t| + c~{\prime}_{t} t~2)}$ yields a $t$-slope $b~{\prime}_{t}= 9.9\pm1.2(\mbox{stat.})\pm 1.4(\mbox{syst.})\mu\mbox{b}$. The results, when compared to low energy data, show a weak energy dependence of both $\sigma_{\gamma p\rightarrow \rho~0 p}$ and of the $t$-slope. The $\rho~0$ is produced predominantly with transverse polarisation, demonstrating that $s$-channel helicity conservation holds at these energies.

Inclusive jet cross sections for events with a large rapidity gap with respect to the proton direction from the reaction $ep \rightarrow jet \; + \; X$ with quasi-real photons have been measured with the ZEUS detector. The cross sections refer to jets with transverse energies $E_T~{jet}>8$GeV. The data show the characteristics of a diffractive process mediated by pomeron exchange. Assuming that the events are due to the exchange of a pomeron with partonic structure, the quark and gluon content of the pomeron is probed at a scale $\sim (E_T~{jet})~2$. A comparison of the measurements with model predictions based on QCD plus Regge phenomenology requires a contribution of partons with a hard momentum density in the pomeron. A combined analysis of the jet cross sections and recent ZEUS measurements of the diffractive structure function in deep inelastic scattering gives the first experimental evidence for the gluon content of the pomeron in diffractive hard scattering processes. The data indicate that between 30\% and 80\% of the momentum of the pomeron carried by partons is due to hard gluons.

This paper presents an analysis of the inclusive properties of diffractive deep inelastic scattering events produced in $ep$ interactions at HERA. The events are characterised by a rapidity gap between the outgoing proton system and the remaining hadronic system. Inclusive distributions are presented and compared with Monte Carlo models for diffractive processes. The data are consistent with models where the pomeron structure function has a hard and a soft contribution. The diffractive structure function is measured as a function of $\xpom$, the momentum fraction lost by the proton, of $\beta$, the momentum fraction of the struck quark with respect to $\xpom$, and of $Q~2$. The $\xpom$ dependence is consistent with the form \xpoma where $a=1.30\pm0.08(stat)~{+0.08}_{-0.14}(sys)$ in all bins of $\beta$ and $Q~2$. In the measured $Q~2$ range, the diffractive structure function approximately scales with $Q~2$ at fixed $\beta$. In an Ingelman-Schlein type model, where commonly used pomeron flux factor normalisations are assumed, it is found that the quarks within the pomeron do not saturate the momentum sum rule.

Photoproduction at HERA is studied in $ep$ collisions, with the ZEUS detector, for $\gamma p$ centre-of-mass energies ranging from 130-270 GeV. A sample of events with two high-$p_T$ jets ($p_T > 6$ GeV, $\eta <1.6$) and a third cluster in the approximate direction of the electron beam is isolated using a clustering algorithm. These events are mostly due to resolved photoproduction. The third cluster is identified as the photon remnant. Its properties, such as the transverse and longitudinal energy flows around the axis of the cluster, are consistent with those commonly attributed to jets, and in particular with those found for the two jets in these events. The mean value of the photon remnant $p_T$ with respect to the beam axis is measured to be $2.1 \pm 0.2$ GeV, which demonstrates substantial mean transverse momenta for the photon remnant.

This paper presents measurements of \k\ and \lam\ production in neutral current, deep inelastic scattering of 26.7 GeV electrons and 820 GeV protons in the kinematic range $ 10 < Q~{2} < 640 $ GeV$~2$, $0.0003 < x < 0.01$, and $y > 0.04$. Average multiplicities for \k\ and \lam\ production are determined for transverse momenta \ \ptr\ $> 0.5 $ GeV and pseudorapidities $\left| \eta \right| < 1.3$. The multiplicities favour a stronger strange to light quark suppression in the fragmentation chain than found in $e~+ e~-$ experiments. The production properties of \k's in events with and without a large rapidity gap with respect to the proton direction are compared. The ratio of neutral \k's to charged particles per event in the measured kinematic range is, within the present statistics, the same in both samples.

Deep inelastic $e~-p$ scattering has been studied in both the charged-current (CC) and neutral-current (NC) reactions at momentum transfers squared, $Q~2$, between 400 GeV$~2$ and the kinematic limit of 87500 GeV$~2$ using the ZEUS detector at the HERA $ep$ collider. The CC and NC total cross sections, the NC to CC cross section ratio, and the differential cross sections, $ d\sigma/dQ~2 $, are presented. For $Q~2 \simeq M_W~2$, where $M_W$ is the mass of the $W$ boson, the CC and NC cross sections have comparable magnitudes, demonstrating the equal strengths of the weak and electromagnetic interactions at high $Q~2$. The $Q~2$ dependence of the CC cross section determines the mass term in the CC propagator to be $M_{W} = 76 \pm 16 \pm 13$GeV.

This paper reports the cross section measurements for the process ep $\rightarrow$ e\jpsip for $Q~2 < 4$ GeV$~2$ at $\sqrt s = 296$ GeV, based on an integrated luminosity of about 0.5pb$~{-1}$, using the ZEUS detector. The \jpsiwas detected in its $\rm e~{+}e~{-}$ and $\rm \mu~{+}\mu~{-}$ decay modes. The photoproduction cross section was measured to be $52~{ \ +7}_{-12}\pm 10$nb at an average $\gamma$p centre of mass energy of 67 GeV and $71~{+13}_{-20}\pm 12$nb at 114 GeV. The significant rise of the cross section compared to lower energy measurements is not in agreement with VDM models, but can be described by QCD inspired models if a rise in the gluon momentum density at low $x$ in the proton is assumed.

Inclusive transverse momentum spectra of charged particles in photoproduction events in the laboratory pseudorapidity range $-1.2<\eta<1.4$ have been measured up to $p_{T}=8\GeV $ using the ZEUS detector. Diffractive and non--diffractive reactions have been selected with an average $\gamma p$ centre of mass (c.m.) energy of $\langle W \rangle = 180\GeV$. For diffractive reactions, the $p_{T}$ spectra of the photon dissociation events have been measured in two intervals of the dissociated photon mass with mean values $\langle M_{X} \rangle = 5$ GeV and $10$ GeV. The inclusive transverse momentum spectra fall exponentially in the low $p_{T}$ region. The non--diffractive data show a pronounced high $p_{T}$ tail departing from the exponential shape. The $p_{T}$ distributions are compared to lower energy photoproduction data and to hadron--hadron collisions at a similar c.m. energy. The data are also compared to the results of a next--to--leading order QCD calculation.

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.