We report on a measurement of the processes e + e − →e + e − , e + e − → μ + μ − , and e + e − → τ + τ − near the Z 0 pole. On the basis of 163 e + e − , 101 μ + μ − and 87 τ + τ − events we obtain Γ ee =89±4±4 MeV, Γ μμ =85±9±6 MeV and Γ ττ =87±10±8 MeV, compatible with the standard model. Combining these with our previous results on hadronic Z 0 decays, we find a hadronic width Γ had =1787±81±90 MeV and an invisible width Γ inv =552±85±71 MeV.

We report on a measurement of the mass of the Z 0 boson, its total width, and its partial decay widths into hadrons and leptons. On the basis of 25 801 hadronic decays and 1999 decays into electrons, muons or taus, selected over eleven energy points between 88.28 GeV and 95.04 GeV, we obtain from a combined fit to hadrons and leptons a mass of M z =91.154±0.021 (exp)±0.030 (LEP) GeV, and a total width of Γ z =2.536±0.045 GeV. The errors on M z have been separated into the experimental error and the uncertainty due to the LEP beam energy. The measured leptonic partial widths are Γ ee =81.2±2.6 MeV, Γ μμ =82.6± 5.8 MeV, and Γ ττ =85.7±7.1 MeV, consistent with lepton universality. From a fit assuming lepton universality we obtain Γ ℓ + ℓ − = 81.9±2.0 MeV. The hadronic partial width is Γ had =1838±46 MeV. From the measured total and partial widths a model independent value for the invisible width is calculated to be Γ inv =453±44 MeV. The errors quoted include both the statistical and the systematic uncertainties.

The couplings of the Z 0 to charged leptons are studied using measurements of the lepton pair cross sections and forward-backward asymmetries at centre of mass energies near to the mass of the Z 0 . The data are consistent with lepton universality. Using a parametrisation of the lepton pair differential cross section which assumes that the Z 0 has only vector and axial couplings to leptons, the charged leptonic partial decay width of the Z 0 is determined to be Г ol+ol− = 83.1±1.9 MeV and the square of the product of the effective axial vector and vector coupling constants of the Z 0 to charged leptons to be a ̌ 2 ol v ̌ 2 ol = 0.0039± 0.0083 , in agreement with the standard model. A parametrisation in the form of the improved Born approximation gives effective leptonic axial vector and vector coupling constants a ̌ 2 ol = 0.998±0.024 and v ̌ 2 ol = 0.0044±0.0083 . In the framework of the standard model, the values of the parameters ϱ z and sin 2 θ w are found to be 0.998±0.024 and 0.233 +0.045 −0.012 respectively. Using the relationship in the minimal standard model between ϱ z and sin 2 θ w , the results sin 2 θ SM w = 0.233 +0.007 −0.006 is obtained. Our previously published measurement of the ratio of the hadronic to the leptonic partial width of the Z 0 is update: R z = 21.72 +0.71 −0.65 .

The total photoproduction cross section is determined from a measurement of electroproduction with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The Q 2 values of the virtual photons are in the range 10 −7 < Q 2 <2×10 −2 GeV 2 . The γp total cross section in the γp centre of mass energy range 186–233 GeV is 154 ± 16 (stat.) ± 32 (syst.) μ b.

We report a study of electron proton collisions at very low Q 2 , corresponding to virtual photoproduction at centre of mass energies in the range 100–295 GeV. The distribution in transverse energy of the observed hadrons is much harder than can be explained by soft processes. Some of the events show back-to-back two-jet production at the rate and with the characteristics expected from hard two-body scattering. A subset of the two-jet events have energy in the electron direction consistent with that expected from the photon remnant in resolved photon processes.

This paper reports a search for excited electrons at the HERA electron-proton collider. In a sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 26 nb − , no evidence was found for any resonant state decaying into e − γ , ν W − or e − Z 0 . Limits on the coupling strength of an excited electron have been determined for masses between 45 and 225 GeV. This study also reports the observation of the wide-angle e γ Compton scattering process.

A search for excited states of the standard model fermions was performed using the ZEUS detector at the HERA electron-proton collider, operating at a centre of mass energy of 296 GeV. In a sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.55 pb−1, no evidence was found for any resonant state decaying into final states composed of a fermion and a gauge boson. Limits on the coupling strength times branching ratio of excited fermions are presented for masses between 50 GeV and 250 GeV, extending previous search regions significantly.

We report the first observation of charmed mesons with the ZEUS detector at HERA using the decay channel ${\rm D}~{*+}\rightarrow (\Do \rightarrow {\rm K}~-\pi~+)\pi~+$ (+ c.c.). Clear signals in the mass difference $\Delta M$=$M$(D$~*$)--$M$(D$~0)$ as well as in the $M(K\pi)$ distribution at the D$~0$ mass are found. The $ep$ cross section for inclusive \DSpm\ production with $Q~2<4\GeV~2$ in the $\gamma p$ centre-of-mass energy range $115 < W < 275$ \GeV\ has been determined to be $(32 \pm 7~{+4}_{-7} )$ nb in the kinematic region \mbox{\{$p_T(\DS)\geq $ 1.7 \,\GeV, $|\eta(\DS)| < 1.5 $\}}. Ex\-tra\-po\-la\-ting outside this region, assuming a mass of the charm quark of 1.5 \GeV, we estimate the $ep$ charm cross section to be $\sigma(e p \rightarrow c \bar{c}X ) = (0.45 \pm 0.11~{+0.37}_{-0.22}) \, \mu {\rm b} $ at \mbox{$\sqrt{s} = 296$}\GeV\ and $\langle W \rangle = 198$ \GeV. The average $\gamma p$ charm cross section \mbox{$\sigma(\gamma p \rightarrow c \bar{c}X )$} is found to be \mbox{$(6.3 \pm 2.2~{+6.3}_{-3.0}) \, \mu {\rm b} $} at $\langle W \rangle = 163$ \GeV\ and \mbox{$(16.9 \pm 5.2~{+13.9}_{-8.5}) \, \mu {\rm b} $} at $\langle W \rangle = 243$ \GeV. The increase of the total charm photoproduction cross section by one order of magnitude with respect to low energy data experiments is well described by QCD NLO calculations using singular gluon distributions in the proton.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Jet production in deep inelastic scattering for $120<Q~2<3600$GeV$~2$ has been studied using data from an integrated luminosity of 3.2pb$~{-1}$ collected with the ZEUS detector at HERA. Jets are identified with the JADE algorithm. A cut on the angular distribution of parton emission in the $\gamma~*$-parton centre-of-mass system minimises the experimental and theoretical uncertainties in the determination of the jet rates. The jet rates, when compared to ${\cal O}$($\alpha_{s}$~2$) perturbative QCD calculations, allow a precise determination of $\alpha_{s}(Q)$ in three $Q~2$-intervals. The values are consistent with a running of $\alpha_{s}(Q)$, as expected from QCD. Extrapolating to $Q=M_{Z~0}$ yields $\alpha_{s}(M_{Z~0}) = 0.117\pm0.005(stat)~{+0.004}_{-0.005}(syst_{exp}) {\pm0.007}(syst_{theory})$.

The production of $\phi$ mesons in the reaction $e~{+}p \rightarrow e~{+} \phi p$ ($\phi \rightarrow K~{+}K~{-}$) at a median $Q~{2}$ of $10~{-4} \ \rm{GeV~2}$ has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The differential $\phi$ photoproduction cross section $d\sigma/dt$ has an exponential shape and has been determined in the kinematic range $0.1<|t|<0.5 \ \rm{GeV~2}$ and $60 < W < 80 \ \rm{GeV}$. An integrated cross section of $\sigma_{\gamma p \rightarrow \phi p} = 0.96 \pm 0.19~{+0.21}_{-0.18}$ $\rm{\mu b}$ has been obtained by extrapolating to {\it t} = 0. When compared to lower energy data, the results show a weak energy dependence of both $\sigma_{\gamma p \rightarrow \phi p}$ and the slope of the $t$ distribution. The $\phi$ decay angular distributions are consistent with $s$-channel helicity conservation. From lower energies to HERA energies, the features of $\phi$ photoproduction are compatible with those of a soft diffractive process.

The production of $\phi$ mesons in the reaction $e~{+}p \rightarrow e~{+} \phi p$ ($\phi \rightarrow K~{+}K~{-}$), for $7 < Q~2 < 25$ GeV$~2$ and for virtual photon-proton centre of mass energies ($W$) in the range 42-134 GeV, has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA. When compared to lower energy data at similar $Q~2$, the results show that the $\gamma~*p \rightarrow \phid p$ cross section rises strongly with $W$. This behaviour is similar to that previously found for the $\gamma~*p \rightarrow \rho~0 p$ cross section. This strong dependence cannot be explained by production through soft pomeron exchange. It is, however, consistent with perturbative QCD expectations, where it reflects the rise of the gluon momentum density in the proton at small $x$. The ratio of $\sigma (\phi) / \sigma (\rho~0)$, which has previously been determined by ZEUS to be 0.065 $\pm$ 0.013 (stat.) in photoproduction at a mean $W$ of 70 GeV, is measured to be 0.18 $\pm $ 0.05 (stat.) $\pm$ 0.03 (syst.) at a mean $Q~2$ of 12.3 GeV$~2$ and mean $W$ of $\approx$ 100 GeV and is thus approaching at large $Q~2$ the value of 2/9 predicted from the quark charges of the vector mesons and a flavour independent production mechanism.

The reaction $\gamma p \rightarrow \omega p$ $(\omega \rightarrow \pi~+\pi~-\pi~0$ and $\pi~0\rightarrow\gamma\gamma)$ has been studied in $ep$ interactions using the \mbox{ZEUS} detector at photon-proton centre-of-mass energies between $70$ and $90\uni{GeV}$ and $|t| < 0.6\uni{GeV}~2$, where $t$ is the squared four momentum transferred at the proton vertex. The elastic \ome photoproduction cross section has been measured to be $\sigma_{\gamma p\rightarrow \omega p} = 1.21\pm 0.12\pm 0.23 \mu\mbox{b}$. The differential cross section $d\sigma_{\gamma p\rightarrow \omega p} /d|t|$ has an exponential shape $\mbox{e}~{-b |t|}$ with a slope $b = 10.0\pm 1.2\pm 1.3\uni{GeV}~{-2}$. The angular distributions of the decay pions are consistent with {\it s}-channel helicity conservation. When compared to low energy data, the features of $\omega$ photoproduction as measured at HERA energies are in agreement with those of a soft diffractive process. Previous measurements of the $\rho~0$ and $\phi$ photoproduction cross sections at HERA show a similar behaviour.

The differential cross section $d\sigma/dt$ for elastic $\rho~0$ photoproduction, $\gamma p \rightarrow \rho~0 p (\rho~0 \rightarrow \pi~+ \pi~-)$, has been measured in $ep$ interactions at HERA. The squared four-momentum exchanged at the proton vertex, $t$, has been determined directly by measuring the momentum of the scattered proton using the ZEUS Leading Proton Spectrometer (LPS), a large scale system of silicon micro-strip detectors operating close to the HERA proton beam. The LPS allows the measurement of the momentum of high energy protons scattered at small angles with accuracies of 0.4% for the longitudinal momentum and 5 MeV for the transverse momentum. Photoproduction of $\rho~0$ mesons has been investigated in the interval $0.073< |t| <0.40 GeV~2$, for photon virtualities $Q~2<1 GeV~2$ and photon-proton centre-of-mass energies $W$ between 50 and 100 GeV. In the measured range, the $t$ distribution exhibits an exponential shape with a slope parameter $b = 9.8 \pm 0.8 (stat.) \pm 1.1 (syst.) GeV~{-2}$. The use of the LPS eliminates the contamination from events with diffractive dissociation of the proton into low mass states.