The π0 inclusive cross section for c.m. production angles θ=90° and 22°>~θ>~5° at c.m. energies of s=23 and 53 GeV has been measured. This cross section is strongly dependent on both θ and s at small angles. The hypothesis of radial scaling is shown to be incapable of incorporating both θ and s dependence of the cross section. A recent quantum-chromodynamics calculation is in qualitative agreement with our results.

The angular distributions of the reactione+e−→μ+μ− ande+e+→τ+τ− have been measured between\(\sqrt s= 50\) and 60.8 GeV with the VENUS detector at TRISTAN. The average total cross section and the forward-backward charge asymmetry for μ-pair production are observed to be 28.3±1.4±0.8 pb and (−29.0−4.8+5.0±0.5)%, and those for τ-pair production are 27.6±1.7±1.0 pb and (−32.8−6.2+6.4±1.5)% at\(\langle \sqrt s \rangle \). These values are consistent with the predictions of the standard model of electroweak interactions.

We have studied the production of charged D ∗ mesons in e + e − annihilation at an average center-of-mass energy of 58.0 GeV. Charged D ∗ mesons were identified using two independent methods; the mass-difference method and the detection of the low transverse-momentum pion. The forward-backward asymmetry of the charm quark production was measured to be A c = −0.61±0.13(stat.)±0.08(syst.). The cross section of inclusive D ∗ production was found to be σ(e + e − →D ∗ ± +X) = 24.5 ± 5.3 ( stat. )±3.0( syst. ) pb. If we assume the standard model prediction for the charm quark production, we obtain the branching ratio for the charm quark to produce a charged D ∗ meson to be Br (c→D ∗+ + X) = (22±5( stat. )±3( syst. ))% .

We present results obtained from a study of the structure of hadronic events recorded by the L3 detector at various centre-of-mass energies. The distributions of event shape variables and the energy dependence of their mean values are measured from 30GeV to 189GeV and compared with various QCD models. The energy dependence of the moments of event shape variables is used to test a power law ansatz for the non-perturbative component. We obtain a universal value of the non-perturbative parameter alpha_0 = 0.537 +/- 0.073. From a comparison with resummed O(alpha_s^2) QCD calculations, we determine the strong coupling constant at each of the selected energies. The measurements demonstrate the running of alpha_s as expected in QCD with a value of alpha_s(m_Z) = 0.1215 +/- 0.0012 (exp) +/- 0.0061 (th).

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.

We present the general properties of multihadron final states produced by e+e− annihilation at center-of-mass energies from 52 to 57 GeV in the AMY detector at the KEK collider TRISTAN. Global shape, inclusive charged-particle, and particle-flow distributions are presented. Our measurements are compared with QCD+fragmentation models that use either leading-logarithmic parton-shower evolution or QCD matrix elements at the parton level, and either string or cluster fragmentation for hadronization.

The transverse momentum and rapidity distributions of net protons and negatively charged hadrons have been measured for minimum bias proton-nucleus and deuteron-gold interactions, as well as central oxygen-gold and sulphur-nucleus collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon. The rapidity density of net protons at midrapidity in central nucleus-nucleus collisions increases both with target mass for sulphur projectiles and with the projectile mass for a gold target. The shape of the rapidity distributions of net protons forward of midrapidity for d+Au and central S+Au collisions is similar. The average rapidity loss is larger than 2 units of rapidity for reactions with the gold target. The transverse momentum spectra of net protons for all reactions can be described by a thermal distribution with `temperatures' between 145 +- 11 MeV (p+S interactions) and 244 +- 43 MeV (central S+Au collisions). The multiplicity of negatively charged hadrons increases with the mass of the colliding system. The shape of the transverse momentum spectra of negatively charged hadrons changes from minimum bias p+p and p+S interactions to p+Au and central nucleus-nucleus collisions. The mean transverse momentum is almost constant in the vicinity of midrapidity and shows little variation with the target and projectile masses. The average number of produced negatively charged hadrons per participant baryon increases slightly from p+p, p+A to central S+S,Ag collisions.

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 $40<W<240$ 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.

We present results from a harmonic decomposition of two-particle azimuthal correlations measured with the STAR detector in Au+Au collisions for energies ranging from $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=7.7$ GeV to 200 GeV. The third harmonic $v_3^2\{2\}=\langle \cos3(\phi_1-\phi_2)\rangle$, where $\phi_1-\phi_2$ is the angular difference in azimuth, is studied as a function of the pseudorapidity difference between particle pairs $\Delta\eta = \eta_1-\eta_2$. Non-zero {\vthree} is directly related to the previously observed large-$\Delta\eta$ narrow-$\Delta\phi$ ridge correlations and has been shown in models to be sensitive to the existence of a low viscosity Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) phase. For sufficiently central collisions, $v_3^2\{2\}$ persist down to an energy of 7.7 GeV suggesting that QGP may be created even in these low energy collisions. In peripheral collisions at these low energies however, $v_3^2\{2\}$ is consistent with zero. When scaled by pseudorapidity density of charged particle multiplicity per participating nucleon pair, $v_3^2\{2\}$ for central collisions shows a minimum near {\snn}$=20$ GeV.

Exclusive photoproduction of $\rho^0(770)$ mesons is studied using the H1 detector at the $ep$ collider HERA. A sample of about 900000 events is used to measure single- and double-differential cross sections for the reaction $\gamma p \to \pi^{+}\pi^{-}Y$. Reactions where the proton stays intact (${m_Y{=}m_p}$) are statistically separated from those where the proton dissociates to a low-mass hadronic system ($m_p{<}m_Y{<}10$ GeV). The double-differential cross sections are measured as a function of the invariant mass $m_{\pi\pi}$ of the decay pions and the squared $4$-momentum transfer $t$ at the proton vertex. The measurements are presented in various bins of the photon-proton collision energy $W_{\gamma p}$. The phase space restrictions are $0.5 < m_{\pi\pi} < 2.2$ GeV, ${\vert t\vert < 1.5}$ GeV${}^2$, and ${20 < W_{\gamma p} < 80}$ GeV. Cross section measurements are presented for both elastic and proton-dissociative scattering. The observed cross section dependencies are described by analytic functions. Parametrising the $m_{\pi\pi}$ dependence with resonant and non-resonant contributions added at the amplitude level leads to a measurement of the $\rho^{0}(770)$ meson mass and width at $m_\rho = 770.8\ {}^{+2.6}_{-2.7}$ (tot) MeV and $\Gamma_\rho = 151.3\ {}^{+2.7}_{-3.6}$ (tot) MeV, respectively. The model is used to extract the $\rho^0(770)$ contribution to the $\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ cross sections and measure it as a function of $t$ and $W_{\gamma p}$. In a Regge asymptotic limit in which one Regge trajectory $\alpha(t)$ dominates, the intercept $\alpha(t{=}0) = 1.0654\ {}^{+0.0098}_{-0.0067}$ (tot) and the slope $\alpha^\prime(t{=}0) = 0.233\ {}^{+0.067 }_{-0.074 }$ (tot) GeV${}^{-2}$ of the $t$ dependence are extracted for the case $m_Y{=}m_p$.