Next-to-leading-order QCD analyses of the ZEUS data on deep inelastic scattering together with fixed-target data have been performed, from which the gluon and quark densities of the proton and the value of the strong coupling constant ␣ s (M Z ) were extracted. The study includes a full treatment of the experimental systematic uncertainties including point-to-point correlations. The resulting uncertainties in the parton density functions are presented. A combined fit for ␣ s (M Z ) and the gluon and quark densities yields a value for ␣ s (M Z ) in agreement with the world average. The parton density functions derived from ZEUS data alone indicate the importance of HERA data in determining the sea quark and gluon distributions at low x. The limits of applicability of the theoretical formalism have been explored by comparing the fit predictions to ZEUS data at very low Q 2 .

Beauty production in deep inelastic scattering with events in which a muon and a jet are observed in the final state has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 114 pb −1 . The fraction of events with beauty quarks in the data was determined using the distribution of the transverse momentum of the muon relative to the jet. The cross section for beauty production was measured in the kinematic range of photon virtuality, Q 2 > 2 GeV 2 , and inelasticity, 0.05 < y < 0.7, with the requirement of a muon and a jet. Total and differential cross sections are presented and compared to QCD predictions. The beauty contribution to the structure function F 2 was extracted and is compared to theoretical predictions.

We search for neutral heavy leptons that are isosinglets under the standard SU (2)l gauge group. Such neutral heavy leptons are expected in many extensions of the standard model. Three types of heavy leptons Ne, N^, NT associated with the three neutrino types v* have been directly searched for and no evidence for a signal has been found. We set the limit Br(Z° -► z//N*) < 3 x 10" 5 at the 95% CL for the mass range from 3 GeV up to m%.

Abstract.In the present work we use the NASA-JPL global ionospheric maps of total electron content (TEC), firstly to construct TEC maps (TEC vs. magnetic local time MLT, and magnetic latitude MLAT) in the interval from 1999 to 2005. These TEC maps were, in turn, used to estimate the annualto-mean amplitude ratio, A 1 , and the semiannual-to-mean amplitude ratio, A 2 , as well as the latitudinal symmetrical and asymmetrical parts, A and A of A 1 . Thus, we investigated in detail the TEC climatology from maps of these indices, with an emphasis on the quantitative presentation for local time and latitudinal changes in the seasonal, annual and semiannual anomalies of the ionospheric TEC. Then we took the TEC value at 14:00 LT to examine various anomalies at a global scale following the same procedure. Results reveal similar features appearing in NmF2, such as that the seasonal anomaly is more significant in the near-pole regions than in the far-pole regions and the reverse is true for the semiannual anomaly; the winter anomaly has least a chance to be observed at the South America and South Pacific areas. The most impressive feature is that the equinoctial asymmetry is most prominent at the East Asian and South Australian areas. Through the analysis of the TIMED GUVI columnar [O/N2] data, we have investigated to what extent the seasonal, annual and semiannual variations can be explained by their counterparts in [O/N2]. Results revealed that the [O/N2] variation is a major contributor to the daytime winter anomaly of TEC, and it also contributes to some of the semiannual and annual anomalies. The contribution to the anomalies unexplained by the [O/N2] data could possibly be due to the dynamics associated with thermospheric winds and electric fields.