The single-pion production reactions $pp\to d\pi^+$, $pp\to np\pi^+$ and $pp\to pp\pi^0$ were measured at a beam momentum of 0.95 GeV/c ($T_p \approx$ 400 MeV) using the short version of the COSY-TOF spectrometer. The implementation of a central calorimeter provided particle identification, energy determination and neutron detection in addition to time-of-flight and angle measurements. Thus all pion production channels were recorded with 1-4 overconstraints. The total and differential cross sections obtained are compared to previous data and theoretical calculations. Main emphasis is put on the discussion of the $pp\pi^0$ channel, where we obtain angular distributions different from previous experimental results, however, partly in good agreement with recent phenomenological and theoretical predictions. In particular we observe very large anisotropies for the $\pi^0$ angular distributions in the kinematical region of small relative proton momenta revealing there a dominance of proton spinflip transitions associated with $\pi^0$ $s$- and $d$-partial waves and emphasizing the important role of $\pi^0$ d-waves.

The cross section for the production of $\omega$ mesons in proton-proton collisions has been measured in a previously unexplored region of incident energies. Cross sections were extracted at 92 MeV and 173 MeV excess energy, respectively. The angular distribution of the $\omega$ at $\epsilon$=173 MeV is strongly anisotropic, demonstrating the importance of partial waves beyond pure s-wave production at this energy.

The single-pion production reactions $pp\to d\pi^+$, $pp\to np\pi^+$ and $pp\to pp\pi^0$ were measured at a beam momentum of 0.95 GeV/c ($T_p \approx$ 400 MeV) using the short version of the COSY-TOF spectrometer. The central calorimeter provided particle identification, energy determination and neutron detection in addition to time-of-flight and angle measurements from other detector parts. Thus all pion production channels were recorded with 1-4 overconstraints. Main emphasis is put on the presentation and discussion of the $np\pi^+$ channel, since the results on the other channels have already been published previously. The total and differential cross sections obtained are compared to theoretical calculations. In contrast to the $pp\pi^0$ channel we find in the $np\pi^+$ channel a strong influence of the $\Delta$ excitation already at this energy close to threshold. In particular we find a $(3 cos^2\Theta + 1)$ dependence in the pion angular distribution, typical for a pure s-channel $\Delta$ excitation and identical to that observed in the $d\pi^+$ channel. Since the latter is understood by a s-channel resonance in the $^1D_2$ $pn$ partial wave, we discuss an analogous scenario for the $pn\pi^+$ channel.

Data accumulated recently for the exclusive measurement of the $pp\to pp\pi^+\pi^-$ reaction at a beam energy of 0.793 GeV using the COSY-TOF spectrometer have been analyzed with respect to possible events from the $pp \to nn\pi^+\pi^+$ reaction channel. The latter is expected to be the only $\pi\pi$ production channel, which contains no major contributions from resonance excitation close to threshold and hence should be a good testing ground for chiral dynamics in the $\pi\pi$ production process. No single event has been found, which meets all conditions for being a candidate for the $pp \to nn \pi^+\pi^+$ reaction. This gives an upper limit for the cross section of 0.16 $\mu$b (90% C.L.), which is more than an order of magnitude smaller than the cross sections of the other two-pion production channels at the same incident energy.

The reaction $ pp\to pp\bf \omega$ was investigated with the TOF spectrometer, which is an external experiment at the accelerator COSY (Forschungszentrum Julich, Germany). Total as well as differential cross sections were determined at an excess energy of $93 MeV$ ($p_{beam}=2950 MeV/c$). Using the total cross section of $(9.0\pm 0.7 \pm1.1) \mu b$ for the reaction $ pp\to pp\omega$ determined here and existing data for the reaction $pp\to pp\bf \phi$, the ratio $\mathcal{R}_{\phi/\omega}=\sigma_\phi/\sigma_\omega$ turns out to be significantly larger than expected by the Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka (OZI) rule. The uncertainty of this ratio is considerably smaller than in previous determinations. The differential distributions show that the $\omega$ production is still dominated by S-wave production at this excess energy, however higher partial waves clearly contribute. A comparison of the measured angular distributions for $\omega$ production to published distributions for $\phi$ production at $83 MeV$ shows that the data are consistent with an identical production mechanism for both vector mesons.

The reaction pp -> pp eta was measured at excess energies of 15 and 41 MeV at an external target of the Juelich Cooler Synchrotron COSY with the Time of Flight Spectrometer. About 25000 events were measured for the excess energy of 15 MeV and about 8000 for 41 MeV. Both protons of the process pp eta were detected with an acceptance of nearly 100% and the eta was reconstructed by the missing mass technique. For both excess energies the angular distributions are found to be nearly isotropic. In the invariant mass distributions strong deviations from the pure phase space distributions are seen.

The reaction e^+e^- -> e^+e^- proton antiproton is studied with the L3 detector at LEP. The analysis is based on data collected at e^+e^- center-of-mass energies from 183 GeV to 209 GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 667 pb^-1. The gamma gamma -> proton antiproton differential cross section is measured in the range of the two-photon center-of-mass energy from 2.1 GeV to 4.5 GeV. The results are compared to the predictions of the three-quark and quark-diquark models.

The second-order azimuthal anisotropy Fourier harmonics, v2, are obtained in pPb and PbPb collisions over a wide pseudorapidity (eta) range based on correlations among six or more charged particles. The pPb data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35 inverse nanobarns, were collected during the 2013 LHC pPb run at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV by the CMS experiment. A sample of semi-peripheral PbPb collision data at sqrt(s[NN])= 2.76 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.5 inverse microbarns and covering a similar range of particle multiplicities as the pPb data, is also analyzed for comparison. The six- and eight-particle cumulant and the Lee-Yang zeros methods are used to extract the v2 coefficients, extending previous studies of two- and four-particle correlations. For both the pPb and PbPb systems, the v2 values obtained with correlations among more than four particles are consistent with previously published four-particle results. These data support the interpretation of a collective origin for the previously observed long-range (large Delta[eta]) correlations in both systems. The ratios of v2 values corresponding to correlations including different numbers of particles are compared to theoretical predictions that assume a hydrodynamic behavior of a pPb system dominated by fluctuations in the positions of participant nucleons. These results provide new insights into the multi-particle dynamics of collision systems with a very small overlapping region.

Exclusive rho^+ rho^- production in two-photon collisions involving a single highly-virtual photon is studied with data collected at LEP at centre-of-mass energies 89 GeV < \sqrt{s} < 209 GeV with a total integrated luminosity of 854.7 pb^-1. The cross section of the process gamma gamma^* -> rho^+ rho^- is determined as a function of the photon virtuality, Q^2, and the two-photon centre-of-mass energy, W_gg, in the kinematic region: 1.2 GeV^2 < Q^2 < 30 GeV^2 and 1.1 GeV < W_gg < 3 GeV. The \rho^+\rho^- production cross section is found to be of the same magnitude as the cross section of the process gamma gamma^* -> rho^0 rho^0, measured in the same kinematic region by L3, and to have similar W_gg and Q^2 dependences.

The reactions gamma gamma -> pi^+pi^-pi^+pi^- and gamma gamma -> pi^+pi^0pi^-pi^0 are studied with the L3 detector at LEP in a data sample collected at centre-of-mass energies from 161GeV to 209GeV with a total integrated luminosity of 698/pb. A spin-parity-helicity analysis of the rho^0 rho^0 and rho^+ rho^- systems for two-photon centre-of-mass energies between 1GeV and 3GeV shows the dominance of the spin-parity state 2+ with helicity 2. The contribution of 0+ and 0- spin-parity states is also observed, whereas contributions of 2- states and of a state with spin-parity 2+ and zero helicity are found to be negligible.