Measurements of the cross section and forward-backward asymmetry for the reaction e + e − → μ + μ − using the DELPHI detector at LEP are presented. The data come from a scan around the Z 0 peak at seven centre of mass energies, giving a sample of 3858 events in the polar angle region 22° < θ < 158°. From a fit to the cross section for 43° < θ < 137°, a polar angle region for which the absolute efficiency has been determined, the square root of the product of the Z 0 → e + e − and Z 0 → μ + μ − partial widths is determined to be (Γ e Γ μ ) 1 2 = 85.0 ± 0.9( stat. ) ± 0.8( syst. ) MeV . From this measurement of the partial width, the value of the effective weak mixing angle is determined to be sin 2 ( θ w ) = 0.2267 ± 0.0037 . The ratio of the hadronic to muon pair partial widths is found to be Γ h / Γ μ = 19.89 ± 0.40(stat.) ± 0.19(syst.). The forward-backward asymmetry at the resonance peak energy E CMS = 91.22 GeV is found to be A FB = 0.028 ± 0.020(stat.) ± 0.005(syst.). From a combined fit to the cross section and forward-backward asymmetry data, the products of the electron and muon vector and axial-vector coupling constants are determined to be V e V μ = 0.0024 ± 0.0015(stat.) ± 0.0004(syst.) and A e A μ = 0.253 ± 0.003(stat.) ± 0.003 (syst.). The results are in good agreement with the expectations of the minimal standard model.

The production of two high-p_T jets in the interactions of quasi-real photons in e+e- collisions at sqrt{s_ee} from 189 GeV to 209 GeV is studied with data corresponding to an integrated e+e- luminosity of 550 pb^{-1}. The jets reconstructed by the k_T cluster algorithm are defined within the pseudo-rapidity range -1 < eta < 1 and with jet transverse momentum, p_T, above 3 GeV/c. The differential di-jet cross-section is measured as a function of the mean transverse momentum ptmean of the jets and is compared to perturbative QCD calculations.

Muon pair production in the process e+e- -> e+e-mu+mu- is studied using the data taken at LEP1 (sqrt(s) \simeq m_Z) with the DELPHI detector during the years 1992-1995. The corresponding integrated luminosity is 138.5 pb^{-1}. The QED predictions have been tested over the whole Q^2 range accessible at LEP1 (from several GeV^2/c^4 to several hundred GeV^2/c^4) by comparing experimental distributions with distributions resulting from Monte Carlo simulations using various generators. Selected events are used to extract the leptonic photon structure function F_2^\gamma. Azimuthal correlations are used to obtain information on additional structure functions, F_A^\gamma and F_B^\gamma, which originate from interference terms of the scattering amplitudes. The measured ratios F_A^\gamma/F_2^\gamma and F_B^\gamma/F_2^\gamma are significantly different from zero and consistent with QED predictions.

The cross-sections for the production of single charged and neutral intermediate vector bosons were measured using integrated luminosities of 52 pb^{-1} and 154 pb^{-1} collected by the DELPHI experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 182.6 GeV and 188.6 GeV, respectively. The cross-sections for the reactions were determined in limited kinematic regions. The results found are in agreement with the Standard Model predictions for these channels.

Measurements of the trilinear gauge boson couplings WWgamma and WWZ are presented using the data taken by DELPHI in 1998 at a centre-of-mass energy of 189 GeV and combined with DELPHI data at 183 GeV. Values are determined for Delta(g_1^Z) and Delta(kappa_gamma), the differences of the WWZ charge coupling and of the WWgamma dipole coupling from their Standard Model values, and for lambda_gamma, the WWgamma quadrupole coupling. A measurement of the magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole moment of the W is extracted from the results for Delta(kappa_gamma) and lambda_gamma. The study uses data from the final states jjlv, jjjj, lX, jjX and gammaX, where j represents a quark jet, l an identified lepton and X missing four-momentum. The observations are consistent with the predictions of the Standard Model.

During the LEP running periods in 1990 and 1991 DELPHI has accumulated approximately 450 000 Z 0 decays into hadrons and charged leptons. The increased event statistics coupled with improved analysis techniques and improved knowledge of the LEP beam energies permit significantly better measurements of the mass and width of the Z 0 resonance. Model independent fits to the cross sections and leptonic forward- backward asymmetries yield the following Z 0 parameters: the mass and total width M Z = 91.187 ± 0.009 GeV, Γ Z = 2.486 ± 0.012 GeV, the hadronicf and leptonic partials widths Γ had = 1.725 ± 0.012 GeV, Γ ℓ = 83.01 ± 0.52 MeV, the invisible width Γ inv = 512 ± 10 MeV, the ratio of hadronic to leptonic partial widths R ℓ = 20.78 ± 0.15, and the Born level hadronic peak cross section σ 0 = 40.90 ± 0.28 nb. Using these results and the value of α s determined from DELPHI data, the number of light neutrino species is determined to be 3.08 ± 0.05. The individual leptonic widths are found to be: Γ e = 82.93 ± 0.70 MeV, Γ μ = 83.20 ± 1.11 MeV and Γ τ = 82.89 ± 1.31 MeV. Using the measured leptonic forward-backward asymmetries and assuming lepton universality, the squared vector and axial-vector couplings of the Z 0 to charged leptons are found to be g V ℓ 2 = (1.47 ± 0.51) × 10 −3 and g A ℓ 2 = 0.2483 ± 0.0016. A full Standard Model fit to the data yields a value of the top mass m t = 115 −82 +52 (expt.) −24 +52 (Higgs) GeV, corresponding to a value of the weak mixing angle sin 2 θ eff lept = 0.2339±0.0015 (expt.) −0.0004 +0.0001 (Higgs). Values are obtained for the variables S and T , or ϵ 1 and ϵ 3 which parameterize electroweak loop effects.

Event shape and charged particle inclusive distributions are measured using 750000 decays of the Z to hadrons from the DELPHI detector at LEP. These precise data allow a decisive confrontation with models of the hadronization process. Improved tunings of the JETSET, ARIADNE and HERWIG parton shower models and the JETSET matrix element model are obtained by fitting the models to these DELPHI data as well as to identified particle distributions from all LEP experiments. The description of the data distributions by the models is critically reviewed with special importance attributed to identified particles.

Infrared and collinear safe event shape distributions and their mean values are determined in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies between 45 and 202 GeV. A phenomenological analysis based on power correction models including hadron mass effects for both differential distributions and mean values is presented. Using power corrections, alpha_s is extracted from the mean values and shapes. In an alternative approach, renormalisation group invariance (RGI) is used as an explicit constraint, leading to a consistent description of mean values without the need for sizeable power corrections. The QCD beta-function is precisely measured using this approach. From the DELPHI data on Thrust, including data from low energy experiments, one finds beta_0 = 7.86 +/- 0.32 for the one loop coefficient of the beta-function or, assuming QCD, n_f = 4.75 +/- 0.44 for the number of active flavours. These values agree well with the QCD expectation of beta_0=7.67 and n_f=5. A direct measurement of the full logarithmic energy slope excludes light gluinos with a mass below 5 GeV.

Inclusive charged particle and event shape distributions are measured using 321 hadronic events collected with the DELPHI experiment at LEP at effective centre of mass energies of 130 to 136 GeV. These distributions are presented and compared to data at lower energies, in particular to the precise Z data. Fragmentation models describe the observed changes of the distributions well. The energy dependence of the means of the event shape variables can also be described using second order QCD plus power terms. A method independent of fragmentation model corrections is used to determine αs from the energy dependence of the mean thrust and heavy jet mass. It is measured to be: $$←pha _s(133 {⤪ GeV})={0.116}pm {0.007}_{exp-0.004theo}^{+0.005}$$ from the high energy data.

The DELPHI experiment at LEP uses Ring Imaging Cherenkov detectors for particle identification. The good understanding of the RICH detectors allows the identification of charged pions, kaons and proto