Charged particle production has been measured in Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) events using the ZEUS detector over a large range of $Q~2$ from 10 to $1280 {\rm\ GeV}~2$. The evolution with $Q$ of the charged multiplicity and scaled momentum has been investigated in the current fragmentation region of the Breit frame. The data are used to study QCD \linebreak coherence effects in DIS and are compared with corresponding \eedata in order to test the universality of quark fragmentation.
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.
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