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.

Diffractive dissociation of quasi-real photons at a photon-proton centre of mass energy of W 200 GeV is studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The process under consideration is gamma p -> X N, where X is the diffractively dissociated photon system of mass M_X and N is either a proton or a nucleonic system with mass M_N < 2GeV. The cross section for this process in the interval 3 < M_X < 24 GeV relative to the total photoproduction cross section was measured to be sigma~partial_D / sigma_tot = 6.2 +- 0.2(stat) +- 1.4(syst)%. After extrapolating this result to the mass interval of m_phi~2 < M_X~2 < 0.05 W~2 and correcting it for proton dissociation, the fraction of the total cross section attributed to single diffractive photon dissociation, gamma p -> X p, is found to be sigma_SD / sigma_tot = 13.3 +- 0.5(stat) +- 3.6(syst)%. The mass spectrum of the dissociated photon system in the interval 8 < M_X < 24 GeV can be described by the triple pomeron (PPP) diagram with an effective pomeron intercept of alpha_P(0) = 1.12 +- 0.04(stat) +- 0.08(syst). The cross section for photon dissociation in the range 3 < M_X < 8 GeV is significantly higher than that expected from the triple pomeron amplitude describing the region 8 < M_X < 24 GeV. Assuming that this discrepancy is due to a pomeron-pomeron-reggeon (PPR) term, its contribution to the diffractive cross section in the interval 3 < M_X < 24 GeV is estimated to be f_PPR = 26 +- 3(stat) +- 12(syst)%.

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.

Quasi-elastic (z >0.95) photo-production of psi' mesons has been observed at HERA for photon-proton centre-of-mass energies in the range 40 to 160 GeV. The psi' mesons were identified through their decays to l+l- and to J/psi pi+ pi-, where the J/psi subsequently decays to l+l-, the lepton l being either a muon or an electron. The cross-section for quasi-elastic photoproduction was measured to be [18.0 +- 2.8 (stat) +- 3.0(syst)] nb at a photon-proton centre-of-mass energy of 80 GeV. The ratio of the psi' to J/psi quasi-elastic cross-sections is 0.150 +- 0.027 (stat) +- 0.022 (syst).

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.

A thrust analysis of Large-Rapidity-Gap events in deep-inelastic ep collisions is presented, using data taken with the H1 detector at HERA in 1994. The average thrust of the final states X, which emerge from the dissociation of virtual photons in the range 10 < Q2 < 100 GeV2, grows with hadronic mass M_X and implies a dominant 2-jet topology. Thrust is found to decrease with growing Pt, the thrust jet momentum transverse to the photon-proton collision axis. Distributions of Pt2 are consistent with being independent of MX. They show a strong alignment of the thrust axis with the photon-proton collision axis, and have a large high-Pt tail. The correlation of thrust with MX is similar to that in e+e- annihilation at sqrt(see)=MX, but with lower values of thrust in the ep data. The data cannot be described by interpreting the dissociated system X as a qqbar state but inclusion of a substantial fraction of qqbarg parton configurations leads naturally to the observed properties. The soft colour exchange interaction model does not describe the data.

Inclusive jet differential cross sections for the reaction ep → jet + X at Q 2 below 4 GeV 2 have been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 0.55 pb −1 . These cross sections are given in the kinematic region 0.2 < y < 0.85, for jet pseudorapidities in the ep -laboratory range −1 < η jet < 2 and refer to jets at the hadron level with a cone radius of one unit in the η - θ plane. These results correspond to quasi-real photoproduction at centre-of-mass energies in the range 130–270 GeV and, approximately, for jet pseudorapidities in the interval −3 < η jet ( λp CMS) < 0. These measurements cover a new kinematic regime of the partonic structure of the photon, at typical scales up to ∼300 GeV 2 and photon fractional momenta down to x γ ∼ 10 −2 . Leading logarithm parton shower Monte Carlo calculations, which include both resolved and direct processes and use the predictions of currently available parametrisations of the photon parton distributions, describe in general the shape and magnitude of the measured η jet and E t jet distributions.

The cross section for the elastic photoproduction of \r0\ mesons ($\gamma p \rightarrow \rho~0 p$) has been measured with the H1 detector at HERA for two average photon-proton centre-of-mass energies of 55 and 187GeV. TheFcenterline lower energy point was measured by observing directly the $\rho~{0}$ decay giving a cross section of $9.1\pm 0.9\,(\stat)\pm 2.5\,(\syst)\;\mu$b. The logarithmic slope parameter of the differential cross section, ${\rm d}\sigma/{\rm d}t$, is found to be $10.9 \pm 2.4\,(\stat) \pm 1.1\,(\syst)\;$GeV$~{-2}$. The \r0\ decay polar angular distribution is found to be consistent with s-channel helicity conservation. The higher energy cross section was determined from analysis of the lower part of the hadronic invariant mass spectrum of diffractive photoproduction and found to be $13.6\pm 0.8\,(\stat)\pm 2.4\,(\syst)\;\mu$b.

A study is presented of the process gamma p -->XY, where there is a large rapidity gap between the systems X and Y. Measurements are made of the differential cross section as a function of the invariant mass mx of the system produced at the photon vertex. Results are presented at centre of mass energies of W_gp = 187 GeV and W_gp = 231 GeV, both where the proton dominantly remains intact and, for the first time, where it dissociates. Both the centre of mass energy and the mx~2 dependence of HERA data and those from a fixed target experiment may simultaneously be described in a triple-Regge model. The low mass photon dissociation process is found to be dominated by diffraction, though a sizable subleading contribution is present at larger masses. The pomeron intercept is extracted and found to be alpha_pom(0) = 1.068 \pm 0.016 (stat.) \pm 0.022 (syst.) \pm 0.041 (model), in good agreement with values obtained from total and elastic hadronic and photoproduction cross sections. The diffractive contribution to the process gamma p --> Xp with mx~2 / W_gp~2 < 0.05 is measured to be 22.2 \pm 0.6 (stat.) \pm 2.6 (syst.) \pm 1.7 (model) % of the total gamma p cross section at W_gp = 187 GeV.

Deep inelastic charged--current reactions have been studied in $e~+p$ and $e~-p$ collisions at a center of mass energy of about $300\,\gev$ in the kinematic region $Q~2\greater200\,\gev~2$ and $x\greater0.006$ using the ZEUS detector at HERA. The integrated cross sections for $Q~2\greater200\,\gev~2$ are found to be $\sigep=30.3\,{}~{+5.5}_{\mns4.2}\,{}~{+1.6}_{\mns2.6}\,{\rm pb}$ and $\sigem=54.7\,{}~{+15.9}_{\mns\chax 9.8}\,{}~{+2.8}_{\mns3.4}\,{\rm pb}$. Differential cross sections have been measured as functions of the variables $x$, $y$ and $Q~2$. From the measured differential cross sections $d\sigma/dQ~2$, the $W$ boson mass is determined to be $M_W=79\,{}~{+8} _{-7}{}~{+4}_{-4}\,\gev$. Measured jet rates and transverse energy profiles agree with model predictions. A search for charged--current interactions with a large rapidity gap yielded one candidate event, corresponding to a cross section of $\sigep(Q~2\greater200\,\gev~2;\eta_{\rm max}<2.5)=0.8\,{}_{-0.7}~ {+1.8}\,\pm0.1\,{\rm pb}$.