Photon diffractive dissociation, $\gamma p \to Xp$, has been studied at HERA with the ZEUS detector using $ep$ interactions where the virtuality $Q^2$ of the exchanged photon is smaller than 0.02 GeV$^2$. The squared four-momentum $t$ exchanged at the proton vertex was determined in the range $0.073<|t|<0.40$ GeV$^2$ by measuring the scattered proton in the ZEUS Leading Proton Spectrometer. In the photon-proton centre-of-mass energy interval $176<W<225$ GeV and for masses of the dissociated photon system $4<M_X<32$ GeV, the $t$ distribution has an exponential shape, $dN/d|t| \propto \exp{(-b|t|)}$, with a slope parameter $b=6.8 \pm 0.9$~(stat.)~$ ^{+1.2}_{-1.1}$~(syst.)~GeV$^{-2}$.

Results of a high-statistics study of elastic scattering and meson resonances produced by π−p interactions at 8 GeV/c are presented. Large statistics and small systematic errors permit examination of the complete kinematic region. Total differential cross sections are given for ρ0,−, f0, g0,−, Δ±, Δ0, and N* resonances. Spin-density matrix elements and Legendre-polynomial moments are given for ρ, f, and Δ resonances. The results for ρ0 and f0 resonances are compared with the predictions of a Regge-pole-exchange model. Properties of the above resonances are compared and discussed. In particular, we present evidence that the ρ0 and f0 production mechanisms are similar. The similarity of the g0 t distribution to that of the ρ0 and f0 suggests a common production mechanism for all three resonances.

We study the internal structure of a forward-going pπ + π − π + π − system, with invariant mass in the range 2.5-4 GeV, produced through diffractive dissociation of a beam proton at the ISR. The shape of the system, as seen in its center-of-mass, deviates strongly from isotropic phase space and possesses, rather, a longitudinal structure with a major axis along the incoming proton direction. The final state proton momentum is aligned in the direction of the incoming proton, an effect which becomes more pronounced with increasing diffractive mass.

The reaction γp→ρfast0pπ+π− has been studied with the linearly polarized 20-GeV monochromatic photon beam at the SLAC Hybrid Facility to test the prediction of s-channel helicity conservation in inelastic diffraction for t’<0.4 (GeV/c)2. In a sample of 1934 events from this reaction, the ρ0 decay-angular distributions and spin-density-matrix elements are consistent with s-channel helicity conservation, the π+π− mass shape displays the same skewing as seen in the reaction γp→pπ+π−, and the pπ+π− mass distribution compares well and scales according to the vector dominance model with that produced in π±p→πfast±pπ+π−.

By means of an isospin analysis of the reaction π ± p→ π (N π ) at 16 GeV/ c we have determined the decay angular distributions of the N π system with I= 1 2 produced by isospin zero exchange. Helicity conservation is not observed in the t -channel for the N π mass region below 1.6 GeV, where diffraction dissociation of the proton is supposed to dominate. There are indications for approximate t -channel helicity conservation for N ∗ (1690) production. In the helicity frame, the experimental data are not in agreement with s -channel helicity conservation over the whole N π mass range investigated. Thus the diffractive process N→N π differs both from the process N→N ππ (or π → πππ and K→K ππ ) which approximately conserves t -channel helicity and from the elastic scattering N→N which conserves helicity in the s -channel.

This paper presents the first analysis of diffractive photon dissociation events in deep inelastic positron-proton scattering at HERA in which the proton in the final state is detected and its momentum measured. The events are selected by requiring a scattered proton in the ZEUS leading proton spectrometer (LPS) with $\xl>0.97$, where $\xl$ is the fraction of the incoming proton beam momentum carried by the scattered proton. The use of the LPS significantly reduces the contamination from events with diffractive dissociation of the proton into low mass states and allows a direct measurement of $t$, the square of the four-momentum exchanged at the proton vertex. The dependence of the cross section on $t$ is measured in the interval $0.073<|t|<0.4$~$\gevtwo$ and is found to be described by an exponential shape with the slope parameter $b=\tslopeerr$. The diffractive structure function $\ftwodfour$ is presented as a function of $\xpom \simeq 1-\xl$ and $\beta$, the momentum fraction of the struck quark with respect to $\xpom$, and averaged over the $t$ interval $0.073<|t|<\ftwodfourtmax$~$\gevtwo$ and the photon virtuality range $5<Q^2<20~\gevtwo$. In the kinematic range $4 \times 10^{-4} < \xpom < 0.03$ and $0.015<\beta<0.5$, the $\xpom$ dependence of $\ftwodfour$ is fitted with a form $\xpoma$, yielding $a= \ftwodfouraerr$. Upon integration over $t$, the structure function $\ftwod$ is determined in a kinematic range extending to higher $\xpom$ and lower $\beta$ compared to our previous analysis; the results are discussed within the framework of Regge theory.

A comparison is made of the low-mass three-meson systems (πππ), (Kππ), (π K K ) and ( K K K ) diffractively produced in the reaction meson + proton → three mesons + proton. Several striking similarities and a few important differences are observed: (i) the reactions are consistent with the assumption that the three mesons decay entirely into a 0 − meson and a 0 + , 1 − or 2 + resonance; (ii) the three-meson mass spectra have a peak ≈ 250 MeV above the effective threshold M eff of the dominant decay mode and then fall off approximately as (mass) −3 ;(iii) the average spin 〈 J 〉 = 0.55 + 1.1 Q eff , where Q eff = M - M eff ; (iv) the average orbital angular momentum 〈 l 〉 increases according to 〈 l 〉 = 0.75 Q eff ; (v) the three-meson states are produced dominantly in unnatural spin-parity states and no evidence for their being resonant is found; (vi) the only natural spin-parity states found are the well-established 2 + resonances A 2 and K ∗ (1420); they have similar properties to the non-resonant unnatural parity states except for a dip at t = 0 in the dσ/d t distributions; (vii) both the unnatural and natural spin-parity states are produced mostly by an exchange of natural parity; (viii) there is evidence for two types of production mechanism with different polarization properties, one approximately conserving helicity in the t -channel and the other in the s -channel.

The differential cross section of π − p scattering has been measured in the energy region 100–345 GeV and in the t -range 0.002<| t |< 0.04 (GeV/ c ) 2 . The real part of the π − p scattering amplitude has been extracted from the data. The results show that the real part continues to increase with energy. The energy dependence of the slope parameter has also been determined. The shrinkage found expressed in terms of the slope of the pomeron trajectory is2 α ′ p =0.23±0.04 (GeV/ c ) −2 . This agrees with the energy dependence found at larger| t |-values.

The differential cross section of pp scattering has been measured in the energy region 100–300 GeV and in the t -range 0.002 < | t | < 0.04 (GeV/| c ) 2 . The results on the real part of the scattering amplitude agrees with dispersion relation calculations. We also report on our determination of the slope parameter b together with an analysis of the world data of b for different hadrons and different t -values. It is shown that the data are consistent with the hypothesis of a universal shrinkage of the hadronic diffraction cone at high energies.

This work extends our previous investigations at the CERN Intersecting Storage Rings, with improved statistics at three different energies, wider angular range and a better control over systematic errors. Values for the (diffraction) shape parameter b are given.