This paper presents measurements of \k\ and \lam\ production in neutral current, deep inelastic scattering of 26.7 GeV electrons and 820 GeV protons in the kinematic range $ 10 < Q~{2} < 640 $ GeV$~2$, $0.0003 < x < 0.01$, and $y > 0.04$. Average multiplicities for \k\ and \lam\ production are determined for transverse momenta \ \ptr\ $> 0.5 $ GeV and pseudorapidities $\left| \eta \right| < 1.3$. The multiplicities favour a stronger strange to light quark suppression in the fragmentation chain than found in $e~+ e~-$ experiments. The production properties of \k's in events with and without a large rapidity gap with respect to the proton direction are compared. The ratio of neutral \k's to charged particles per event in the measured kinematic range is, within the present statistics, the same in both samples.

The photoproduction of $D^{*\pm}$ mesons has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA at three different ep centre-of-mass energies, $\sqrt{s}$, of 318, 251 and 225 GeV. For each data set, $D^*$ mesons were required to have transverse momentum, $p_T^{D^*}$, and pseudorapidity, $\eta^{D^*}$, in the ranges $1.9 < p_T^{D^*} < 20$ GeV and $|\eta^{D^*}|<1.6$. The events were required to have a virtuality of the incoming photon, $Q^2$, of less than 1 GeV$^2$. The dependence on $\sqrt{s}$ was studied by normalising to the high-statistics measurement at $\sqrt{s} =318$ GeV. This led to the cancellation of a number of systematic effects both in data and theory. Predictions from next-to-leading-order QCD describe the $\sqrt{s}$ dependence of the data well.

Diffractive photoproduction of D*+/-(2010) mesons was measured with the ZEUS detector at the ep collider HERA, using an integrated luminosity of 78.6 pb^{-1}. The D* mesons were reconstructed in the kinematic range: transverse momentum p_T(D*) > 1.9 GeV and pseudorapidity |eta(D*)| < 1.6, using the decay D*+ -> D0 pi+_s followed by D0 -> K- pi+ (+c.c.). Diffractive events were identified by a large gap in pseudorapidity between the produced hadronic state and the outgoing proton. Cross sections are reported for photon-proton centre-of-mass energies in the range 130 < W < 300 GeV and for photon virtualities Q^2 < 1 GeV^2, in two ranges of the Pomeron fractional momentum x_pom < 0.035 and x_pom < 0.01. The relative contribution of diffractive events to the inclusive D*+/-(2010) photoproduction cross section is about 6%. The data are in agreement with perturbative QCD calculations based on various parameterisations of diffractive parton distribution functions. The results are consistent with diffractive QCD factorisation.

Differential cross sections for jet photoproduction in the reaction ep --> e jet X have been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using 82.2 pb^-1 of integrated luminosity. Inclusive jet cross sections are presented as a function of the jet transverse energy, E_T^jet, for jets with E_T^jet > 17 GeV and pseudorapidity -1 < eta^jet < 2.5, in the gamma-p centre-of-mass-energy range 142 < W_gamma-p < 293 GeV. Scaled jet invariant cross sections are presented as a function of the dimensionless variable x_T = 2 E_T^jet/W_gamma-p for <W_gamma-p> = 180 and 255 GeV. Next-to-leading-order QCD calculations give a good description of the measured differential cross sections in both magnitude and shape. The ratio of scaled jet invariant cross sections at the two <W_gamma-p> values shows clear non-scaling behaviour. A value for the strong coupling constant of alpha_s(M_Z) = 0.1224 +- 0.0001 (stat.) + 0.0022 - 0.0019 (exp.) + 0.0054 - 0.0042 (th.) has been extracted from a QCD analysis of the measured dsigma/dE_T^jet. The variation of alpha_s with E_T^jet is in good agreement with the running of alpha_s as predicted by QCD.

Deep inelastic charged--current reactions have been studied in $e~+p$ and $e~-p$ collisions at a center of mass energy of about $300\,\gev$ in the kinematic region $Q~2\greater200\,\gev~2$ and $x\greater0.006$ using the ZEUS detector at HERA. The integrated cross sections for $Q~2\greater200\,\gev~2$ are found to be $\sigep=30.3\,{}~{+5.5}_{\mns4.2}\,{}~{+1.6}_{\mns2.6}\,{\rm pb}$ and $\sigem=54.7\,{}~{+15.9}_{\mns\chax 9.8}\,{}~{+2.8}_{\mns3.4}\,{\rm pb}$. Differential cross sections have been measured as functions of the variables $x$, $y$ and $Q~2$. From the measured differential cross sections $d\sigma/dQ~2$, the $W$ boson mass is determined to be $M_W=79\,{}~{+8} _{-7}{}~{+4}_{-4}\,\gev$. Measured jet rates and transverse energy profiles agree with model predictions. A search for charged--current interactions with a large rapidity gap yielded one candidate event, corresponding to a cross section of $\sigep(Q~2\greater200\,\gev~2;\eta_{\rm max}<2.5)=0.8\,{}_{-0.7}~ {+1.8}\,\pm0.1\,{\rm pb}$.

Elastic $\rho~0$ photoproduction has been measured using the ZEUS detector at HERA. Untagged photoproduction events from $ep$ interactions were used to measure the reaction $\gamma p \rightarrow \rho~0 p$ ($\rho~0 \rightarrow \pi~+ \pi~-$) at photon-proton centre-of-mass energies between 60 and 80GeV and $|t|&lt;0.5$GeV$~2$, where $t$ is the square of the four-momentum transferred at the proton vertex. The differential cross section $d\sigma/dM_{\pi\pi}$, where $M_{\pi\pi}$ is the invariant mass of the two pions, and the integrated cross section, $\sigma_{\gamma p\rightarrow \rho~0 p}$, are presented; the latter was measured to be $14.7\pm 0.4(\mbox{stat.})\pm2.4(\mbox{syst.})\mu\mbox{b}$. The differential cross section $d\sigma/dt$ has an approximately exponential shape; a fit of the type $A~{\prime}_{t} \exp{(-b~{\prime}_{t}|t| + c~{\prime}_{t} t~2)}$ yields a $t$-slope $b~{\prime}_{t}= 9.9\pm1.2(\mbox{stat.})\pm 1.4(\mbox{syst.})\mu\mbox{b}$. The results, when compared to low energy data, show a weak energy dependence of both $\sigma_{\gamma p\rightarrow \rho~0 p}$ and of the $t$-slope. The $\rho~0$ is produced predominantly with transverse polarisation, demonstrating that $s$-channel helicity conservation holds at these energies.

This paper reports a search for excited electrons at the HERA electron-proton collider. In a sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 26 nb − , no evidence was found for any resonant state decaying into e − γ , ν W − or e − Z 0 . Limits on the coupling strength of an excited electron have been determined for masses between 45 and 225 GeV. This study also reports the observation of the wide-angle e γ Compton scattering process.

The exclusive production of $\rho~0$ mesons in deep inelastic electron-proton scattering has been studied using the ZEUS detector. Cross sections have been measured in the range $7 < Q~2 < 25$ GeV$~2$ for $\gamma~*p$ centre of mass (c.m.) energies from 40 to 130 GeV. The $\gamma~*p \rightarrow \rho~0 p$ cross section exhibits a $Q~{-(4.2 \pm 0.8 ~{+1.4}_{-0.5})}$ dependence and both longitudinally and transversely polarised $\rho~0$'s are observed. The $\gamma~*p \rightarrow \rho~0 p$ cross section rises strongly with increasing c.m. energy, when compared with NMC data at lower energy, which cannot be explained by production through soft pomeron exchange. The data are compared with perturbative QCD calculations where the rise in the cross section reflects the increase in the gluon density at low $x$. the gluon density at low $x$.

This paper presents an analysis of the inclusive properties of diffractive deep inelastic scattering events produced in $ep$ interactions at HERA. The events are characterised by a rapidity gap between the outgoing proton system and the remaining hadronic system. Inclusive distributions are presented and compared with Monte Carlo models for diffractive processes. The data are consistent with models where the pomeron structure function has a hard and a soft contribution. The diffractive structure function is measured as a function of $\xpom$, the momentum fraction lost by the proton, of $\beta$, the momentum fraction of the struck quark with respect to $\xpom$, and of $Q~2$. The $\xpom$ dependence is consistent with the form \xpoma where $a=1.30\pm0.08(stat)~{+0.08}_{-0.14}(sys)$ in all bins of $\beta$ and $Q~2$. In the measured $Q~2$ range, the diffractive structure function approximately scales with $Q~2$ at fixed $\beta$. In an Ingelman-Schlein type model, where commonly used pomeron flux factor normalisations are assumed, it is found that the quarks within the pomeron do not saturate the momentum sum rule.

Inclusive jet cross sections for events with a large rapidity gap with respect to the proton direction from the reaction $ep \rightarrow jet \; + \; X$ with quasi-real photons have been measured with the ZEUS detector. The cross sections refer to jets with transverse energies $E_T~{jet}>8$GeV. The data show the characteristics of a diffractive process mediated by pomeron exchange. Assuming that the events are due to the exchange of a pomeron with partonic structure, the quark and gluon content of the pomeron is probed at a scale $\sim (E_T~{jet})~2$. A comparison of the measurements with model predictions based on QCD plus Regge phenomenology requires a contribution of partons with a hard momentum density in the pomeron. A combined analysis of the jet cross sections and recent ZEUS measurements of the diffractive structure function in deep inelastic scattering gives the first experimental evidence for the gluon content of the pomeron in diffractive hard scattering processes. The data indicate that between 30\% and 80\% of the momentum of the pomeron carried by partons is due to hard gluons.