The photoproduction of $D^{*\pm}$ mesons has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA at three different ep centre-of-mass energies, $\sqrt{s}$, of 318, 251 and 225 GeV. For each data set, $D^*$ mesons were required to have transverse momentum, $p_T^{D^*}$, and pseudorapidity, $\eta^{D^*}$, in the ranges $1.9 < p_T^{D^*} < 20$ GeV and $|\eta^{D^*}|<1.6$. The events were required to have a virtuality of the incoming photon, $Q^2$, of less than 1 GeV$^2$. The dependence on $\sqrt{s}$ was studied by normalising to the high-statistics measurement at $\sqrt{s} =318$ GeV. This led to the cancellation of a number of systematic effects both in data and theory. Predictions from next-to-leading-order QCD describe the $\sqrt{s}$ dependence of the data well.
The cross sections for the production of D*+- mesons normalised to the HER data sample.
Photoproduction of beauty quarks in events with two jets and an electron associated with one of the jets has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 120pb^-1. The fractions of events containing b quarks, and also of events containing c quarks, were extracted from a likelihood fit using variables sensitive to electron identification as well as to semileptonic decays. Total and differential cross sections for beauty and charm production were measured and compared with next-to-leading-order QCD calculations and Monte Carlo models.
Total cross sections for electrons from beauty and charm quarks.
Differential electron cross sections as a function of PT and ETARAP from beauty and charm quarks.
Differential electron cross sections as a function of PT and ETARAP from beauty and charm quarks.
A first measurement is reported of the longitudinal proton structure function F_L(x,Q^2) at the ep collider HERA. It is based on inclusive deep inelastic e^+p scattering cross section measurements with a positron beam energy of 27.5 GeV and proton beam energies of 920, 575 and 460 GeV. Employing the energy dependence of the cross section, F_L is measured in a range of squared four-momentum transfers 12 < Q^2 < 90 GeV^2 and low Bjorken x 0.00024 < x < 0.0036. The F_L values agree with higher order QCD calculations based on parton densities obtained using cross section data previously measured at HERA.
The measured longitudinal proton structure function FL at Q**2 = 12 GeV**2 extracted from the combined 920,575 and 450 GeV proton energy data.
The measured longitudinal proton structure function FL at Q**2 = 15 GeV**2 extracted from the combined 920,575 and 450 GeV proton energy data.
The measured longitudinal proton structure function FL at Q**2 = 20 GeV**2 extracted from the combined 920,575 and 450 GeV proton energy data.
Differential cross sections for jet photoproduction in the reaction ep --> e jet X have been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using 82.2 pb^-1 of integrated luminosity. Inclusive jet cross sections are presented as a function of the jet transverse energy, E_T^jet, for jets with E_T^jet > 17 GeV and pseudorapidity -1 < eta^jet < 2.5, in the gamma-p centre-of-mass-energy range 142 < W_gamma-p < 293 GeV. Scaled jet invariant cross sections are presented as a function of the dimensionless variable x_T = 2 E_T^jet/W_gamma-p for <W_gamma-p> = 180 and 255 GeV. Next-to-leading-order QCD calculations give a good description of the measured differential cross sections in both magnitude and shape. The ratio of scaled jet invariant cross sections at the two <W_gamma-p> values shows clear non-scaling behaviour. A value for the strong coupling constant of alpha_s(M_Z) = 0.1224 +- 0.0001 (stat.) + 0.0022 - 0.0019 (exp.) + 0.0054 - 0.0042 (th.) has been extracted from a QCD analysis of the measured dsigma/dE_T^jet. The variation of alpha_s with E_T^jet is in good agreement with the running of alpha_s as predicted by QCD.
Measured inclusive jet cross section.
Measured scaled jet invariant cross section in two W intervals.
Ratio of the measured scaled jet invariant cross section in the two W intervals.
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