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.

The photoproduction of beauty quarks in events with two jets and a muon has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 110 pb$^{- 1}$. The fraction of jets containing b quarks was extracted from the transverse momentum distribution of the muon relative to the closest jet. Differential cross sections for beauty production as a function of the transverse momentum and pseudorapidity of the muon, of the associated jet and of $x_{\gamma}^{jets}$, the fraction of the photon's momentum participating in the hard process, are compared with MC models and QCD predictions made at next-to-leading order. The latter give a good description of the data.

A combination is presented of the inclusive deep inelastic cross sections measured by the H1 and ZEUS Collaborations in neutral and charged current unpolarised ep scattering at HERA during the period 1994-2000. The data span six orders of magnitude in negative four-momentum-transfer squared, Q^2, and in Bjorken x. The combination method used takes the correlations of systematic uncertainties into account, resulting in an improved accuracy. The combined data are the sole input in a NLO QCD analysis which determines a new set of parton distributions HERAPDF1.0 with small experimental uncertainties. This set includes an estimate of the model and parametrisation uncertainties of the fit result.

This paper presents measurements of D^{*\pm} production in deep inelastic scattering from collisions between 27.5 GeV positrons and 820 GeV protons. The data have been taken with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The decay channel $D^{*+}\to (D^0 \to K^- \pi^+) \pi^+ $ (+ c.c.) has been used in the study. The $e^+p$ cross section for inclusive D^{*\pm} production with $5<Q^2<100 GeV^2$ and $y<0.7$ is 5.3 \pms 1.0 \pms 0.8 nb in the kinematic region {$1.3<p_T(D^{*\pm})<9.0$ GeV and $| \eta(D^{*\pm}) |<1.5$}. Differential cross sections as functions of p_T(D^{*\pm}), $\eta(D^{*\pm}), W$ and $Q^2$ are compared with next-to-leading order QCD calculations based on the photon-gluon fusion production mechanism. After an extrapolation of the cross section to the full kinematic region in p_T(D^{*\pm}) and $\eta$(D^{*\pm}), the charm contribution $F_2^{c\bar{c}}(x,Q^2)$ to the proton structure function is determined for Bjorken $x$ between 2 $\cdot$ 10$^{-4}$ and 5 $\cdot$ 10$^{-3}$.

Deep inelastic scattering and its diffractive component, $ep \to e^{\prime}\gamma^* p \to e^{\prime}XN$, have been studied at HERA with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of 52.4 pb$^{-1}$. The $M_X$ method has been used to extract the diffractive contribution. A wide range in the centre-of-mass energy $W$ (37 -- 245 GeV), photon virtuality $Q^2$ (20 -- 450 GeV$^2$) and mass $M_X$ (0.28 -- 35 GeV) is covered. The diffractive cross section for $2 < M_X < 15$ GeV rises strongly with $W$, the rise becoming steeper as $Q^2$ increases. The data are also presented in terms of the diffractive structure function, $F^{\rm D(3)}_2$, of the proton. For fixed $Q^2$ and fixed $M_X$, $\xpom F^{\rm D(3)}_2$ shows a strong rise as $\xpom \to 0$, where $\xpom$ is the fraction of the proton momentum carried by the Pomeron. For Bjorken-$x < 1 \cdot 10^{-3}$, $\xpom F^{\rm D(3)}_2$ shows positive $\log Q^2$ scaling violations, while for $x \ge 5 \cdot 10^{-3}$ negative scaling violations are observed. The diffractive structure function is compatible with being leading twist. The data show that Regge factorisation is broken.

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 $40&lt;W&lt;240$ 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.

Diffractive photoproduction of dijets was measured with the ZEUS detector at the ep collider HERA using an integrated luminosity of 77.2 pb-1. The measurements were made in the kinematic range Q^2 < 1 GeV^2, 0.20 < y < 0.85 and x_pom < 0.025, where Q^2 is the photon virtuality, y is the inelasticity and x_pom is the fraction of the proton momentum taken by the diffractive exchange. The two jets with the highest transverse energy, E_T^jet, were required to satisfy E_T^jet > 7.5 and 6.5 GeV, respectively, and to lie in the pseudorapidity range -1.5 < eta^jet < 1.5. Differential cross sections were compared to perturbative QCD calculations using available parameterisations of diffractive parton distributions of the proton.

Dijet cross sections are presented using photoproduction data obtained with the ZEUS detector during 1994. These measurements represent an extension of previous results, as the higher statistics allow cross sections to be measured at higher jet transverse energy (ETJ). Jets are identified in the hadronic final state using three different algorithms, and the cross sections compared to complete next-to-leading order QCD calculations. Agreement with these calculations is seen for the pseudorapidity dependence of the direct photon events with ETJ > 6 GeV and of the resolved photon events with ETJ > 11 GeV. Calculated cross sections for resolved photon processes with 6 GeV < ETJ < 11 GeV lie below the data.

Angular and momentum distributions have been measured for positrons from electron-positron pairs created in peripheral collisions of 6.4-TeV sulfur ions with fixed targets of Al, Pd, and Au. The data are compared with results of several theoretical treatments. Measured differential cross sections peak at low momentum (≤1 MeV/c), extend significantly to much higher momenta (>17 MeV/c), and concentrate sharply in the forward direction, along the ion-beam axis. Positron yields scale as the square of the target nuclear charge as predicted by theory.

The charged multiplicity distributions and the mean charged multiplicity have been investigated in inclusive neutral current deep inelastic $ep$ scattering with the ZEUS detector at HERA, using an integrated luminosity of 38.6 pb$^{-1}$. The measurements were performed in the current region of the Breit frame, as well as in the current fragmentation region of the hadronic centre-of-mass frame. The KNO-scaling properties of the data were investigated and the energy dependence was studied using different energy scales. The data are compared to results obtained in $\epem$ collisions and to previous DIS measurements as well as to leading-logarithm parton-shower Monte Carlo predictions.