Measurement of (anti)deuteron and (anti)proton production in DIS at HERA

The first observation of (anti)deuterons in deep inelastic scattering at HERA has been made with the ZEUS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 300--318 GeV using an integrated luminosity of 120 pb-1. The measurement was performed in the central rapidity region for transverse momentum per unit of mass in the range 0.3<p_T/M<0.7. The particle rates have been extracted and interpreted in terms of the coalescence model. The (anti)deuteron production yield is smaller than the (anti)proton yield by approximately three orders of magnitude, consistent with the world measurements.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables, submitted to Nucl. Phys.

Photoproduction of D∗±D^{*\pm} mesons associated with a leading neutron

The photoproduction of $D^{*\pm} (2010)$ mesons associated with a leading neutron has been observed with the ZEUS detector in $ep$ collisions at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 80 pb$^{-1}$. The neutron carries a large fraction, {$x_L>0.2$}, of the incoming proton beam energy and is detected at very small production angles, {$\theta_n<0.8$ mrad}, an indication of peripheral scattering. The $D^*$ meson is centrally produced with pseudorapidity {$|\eta| 1.9$ GeV}, which is large compared to the average transverse momentum of the neutron of 0.22 GeV. The ratio of neutron-tagged to inclusive $D^*$ production is $8.85\pm 0.93({\rm stat.})^{+0.48}_{-0.61}({\rm syst.})\%$ in the photon-proton center-of-mass energy range {$130 <W<280$ GeV}. The data suggest that the presence of a hard scale enhances the fraction of events with a leading neutron in the final state.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Measurement of beauty production in deep inelastic scattering at HERA

The beauty production cross section for deep inelastic scattering events with at least one hard jet in the Breit frame together with a muon has been measured, for photon virtualities Q^2 > 2 GeV^2, with the ZEUS detector at HERA using integrated luminosity of 72 pb^-1. The total visible cross section is sigma_b-bbar (ep -> e jet mu X) = 40.9 +- 5.7 (stat.) +6.0 -4.4 (syst.) pb. The next-to-leading order QCD prediction lies about 2.5 standard deviations below the data. The differential cross sections are in general consistent with the NLO QCD predictions; however at low values of Q^2, Bjorken x, and muon transverse momentum, and high values of jet transverse energy and muon pseudorapidity, the prediction is about two standard deviations below the data.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Observation of isolated high-E_T photons in deep inelastic scattering

First measurements of cross sections for isolated prompt photon production in deep inelastic ep scattering have been made using the ZEUS detector at the HERA electron-proton collider using an integrated luminosity of 121 pb^-1. A signal for isolated photons in the transverse energy and rapidity ranges 5 < E_T^gamma < 10 GeV and -0.7 < eta^gamma < 0.9 was observed for virtualities of the exchanged photon of Q^2 > 35 GeV^2. Cross sections are presented for inclusive prompt photons and for those accompanied by a single jet in the range E_T^jet \geq 6 GeV and -1.5 \leq eta^jet < 1.8. Calculations at order alpha^3alpha_s describe the data reasonably well.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

Isolated tau leptons in events with large missing transverse momentum at HERA

A search for events containing isolated tau leptons and large missing transverse momentum, not originating from the tau decay, has been performed with the ZEUS detector at the electron-proton collider HERA, using 130 pb^-1 of integrated luminosity. A search was made for isolated tracks coming from hadronic tau decays. Observables based on the internal jet structure were exploited to discriminate between tau decays and quark- or gluon-induced jets. Three tau candidates were found, while 0.40 +0.12 -0.13 were expected from Standard Model processes, such as charged current deep inelastic scattering and single W-boson production. To search for heavy-particle decays, a more restrictive selection was applied to isolate tau leptons produced together with a hadronic final state with high transverse momentum. Two candidate events survive, while 0.20 +-0.05 events are expected from Standard Model processes.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, accepted by Phys. Lett. B. Updated with minor changes to the text requested by the journal refere

Search for contact interactions, large extra dimensions and finite quark radius in ep collisions at HERA

A search for physics beyond the Standard Model has been performed with high-Q^2 neutral current deep inelastic scattering events recorded with the ZEUS detector at HERA. Two data sets, e^+ p \to e^+ X and e^- p \to e^- X, with respective integrated luminosities of 112 pb^-1 and 16 pb^-1, were analyzed. The data reach Q^2 values as high as 40000 GeV^2. No significant deviations from Standard Model predictions were observed. Limits were derived on the effective mass scale in eeqq contact interactions, the ratio of leptoquark mass to the Yukawa coupling for heavy leptoquark models and the mass scale parameter in models with large extra dimensions. The limit on the quark charge radius, in the classical form factor approximation, is 0.85 10^-16 cm.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Physics Letters

Forward jet production in deep inelastic ep scattering and low-x parton dynamics at HERA

Differential inclusive jet cross sections in neutral current deep inelastic ep scattering have been measured with the ZEUS detector. Three phase-space regions have been selected in order to study parton dynamics where the effects of BFKL evolution might be present. The measurements have been compared to the predictions of leading-logarithm parton shower Monte Carlo models and fixed-order perturbative QCD calculations. In the forward region, QCD calculations at order alpha_s^1 underestimate the data up to an order of magnitude at low x. An improved description of the data in this region is obtained by including QCD corrections at order alpha_s^2, which account for the lowest-order t-channel gluon-exchange diagrams, highlighting the importance of such terms in parton dynamics at low x.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figure

Measurement of dijet photoproduction for events with a leading neutron at HERA

Differential cross sections for dijet photoproduction and this process in association with a leading neutron, e+ + p -> e+ + jet + jet + X (+ n), have been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 40 pb-1. The fraction of dijet events with a leading neutron was studied as a function of different jet and event variables. Single- and double-differential cross sections are presented as a function of the longitudinal fraction of the proton momentum carried by the leading neutron, xL, and of its transverse momentum squared, pT^2. The dijet data are compared to inclusive DIS and photoproduction results; they are all consistent with a simple pion-exchange model. The neutron yield as a function of xL was found to depend only on the fraction of the proton beam energy going into the forward region, independent of the hard process. No firm conclusion can be drawn on the presence of rescattering effects.Comment: 40 pages, 18 figure

Deep inelastic inclusive and diffractive scattering at Q2Q^2 values from 25 to 320 GeV2^2 with the ZEUS forward plug calorimeter

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.Comment: 89 pages, 27 figure

Exclusive electroproduction of J/psi mesons at HERA

The exclusive electroproduction of J/psi mesons, ep->epJ/psi, has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA for virtualities of the exchanged photon in the ranges 0.15<Q^2<0.8 GeV^2 and 2<Q^2<100 GeV^2 using integrated luminosities of 69 pb^-1 and 83 pb^-1, respectively.The photon-proton centre-of-mass energy was in the range 30<W<220 GeV and the squared four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex |t|<1.The cross sections and decay angular distributions are presented as functions of Q^2, W and t. The effective parameters of the Pomeron trajectory are in agreement with those found in J/psi photoproduction. The spin-density matrix elements, calculated from the decay angular distributions, are consistent with the hypothesis of s-channel helicity conservation. The ratio of the longitudinal to transverse cross sections, sigma_L/sigma_T, grows with Q^2, whilst no dependence on W or t is observed. The results are in agreement with perturbative QCD calculations and exhibit a strong sensitivity to the gluon distribution in the proton.Comment: 33 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to Nuclear Physics