# DESY–99–054 𝑊 Production and the Search for Events with an Isolated High-Energy Lepton and Missing Transverse Momentum at HERA

## 1 Introduction

This paper reports the results of an investigation into the production of $`W`$ bosons in positron-proton collisions at HERA. The collider operated from 1994 to 1997 with positron and proton beam energies of $`27.5`$ and $`820`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$ respectively, resulting in a centre-of-mass energy of $`300`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$. During this period the ZEUS detector collected data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $`47.7`$ $`\mathrm{pb}^1`$.

The Standard Model calculation of the cross section for the production of $`W`$ bosons via the reaction $`e^+pe^+W^\pm X`$ yields a value of roughly $`1`$ $`\mathrm{pb}`$ . The $`W`$-production cross section is sensitive to the couplings at the $`WW\gamma `$ vertex, particularly at large hadronic transverse momentum (“hadronic $`P_T`$”). A measurement of the cross section can therefore provide limits on anomalous $`WW\gamma `$ couplings. In addition, the measurement gives a useful constraint on the $`W`$-production background to a variety of searches for non-Standard-Model physics at HERA.

The search for signals for $`W`$ production in both the electron<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1The term electron is used to refer to both electrons and positrons. and muon decay channels was performed by selecting events with large missing transverse momentum (“missing $`P_T`$”) which also contain isolated leptons with high transverse momentum (“high $`P_T`$”). The result of the search in each decay channel is consistent with Standard Model expectations. The integrated luminosity and the signal-to-background ratio in the electron channel search are sufficient to allow a first estimate of the cross section for $`W`$ production in electron-proton interactions. The searches in the two decay channels are combined at large hadronic $`P_T`$ in order to obtain cross-section limits in this region, and limits on the couplings at the $`WW\gamma `$ triple-gauge-boson vertex are calculated.

The H1 collaboration has recently reported the observation of six events containing isolated high-energy leptons and missing transverse momentum . The number of muon events is significantly larger than the Standard Model expectation, to which $`W`$ production forms the major contribution. A search for such events with the ZEUS detector, using similar cuts and with a similar sensitivity to that of the H1 analysis, yields results in good agreement with the Standard Model.

In Section 2 of this article, the $`W`$-production signal and its simulation are discussed in more detail. Background processes are treated in Section 3. Section 4 describes the ZEUS detector. Details of the event reconstruction and pre-selection are given in Section 5. The results of the analysis in the electron and muon channels are presented in Sections 6 and 7, respectively. Section 8 presents upper limits on the cross section for $`W`$ production at large hadronic $`P_T`$, while Section 9 presents the ZEUS analysis of events containing an isolated high-energy charged particle in addition to large missing transverse momentum. The results are summarised in Section 10.

## 2 $`W`$ Production at HERA

The dominant $`W`$-production process in $`e^+p`$ collisions at HERA is the reaction

$$e^+pe^+W^\pm X,$$
(1)   
in which the scattered beam electron emerges at small angles with respect to the lepton beam direction and is generally not found in the central detector. The observed event topology therefore consists of the hadronic final state $`X`$, which typically carries small transverse momentum, and the $`W`$ decay products at comparatively large laboratory angles.

### 2.1 Cross-Section Calculation

The leading-order diagrams for reaction (1) are shown in Fig. 1. Diagrams (a) and (b) correspond to $`W`$ radiation from the incoming and scattered quark, respectively. Diagrams (f) and (g), in which the $`W`$ couples to the incoming or scattered lepton line, are suppressed by a second heavy propagator. Diagram (c) contains the $`WW\gamma `$ triple-gauge-boson coupling. Diagrams (d) and (e), required to preserve gauge invariance, contain off-shell $`W`$’s which give rise primarily to low-$`P_T`$ charged leptons and lepton-neutrino invariant masses far from the $`W`$ mass.

The contributions of the different diagrams are calculated with the Monte Carlo based program EPVEC . The fermion $`u`$-channel pole of diagram (a) is regularised by splitting the phase space into two regions :

$$\sigma =\sigma (|u|>u_{cut})+^{u_{cut}}\frac{d\sigma }{d|u|}d|u|$$

where $`u=(p_qp_W)^2`$ and $`p_q`$, $`p_W`$ are the four momenta of the incoming quark and final state $`W`$ boson, respectively. The first term is calculated using helicity amplitudes for the process $`e^+qe^+Wq^{},Wf\overline{f}^{}`$. The cross section for small values of $`|u|`$ is calculated by folding the cross section for $`q\overline{q}^{}Wf\overline{f}^{}`$ with the parton densities in the proton and the effective parton densities for the resolved photon emitted by the incoming electron. The resulting total cross section for reaction (1) varies little with $`u_{cut}`$, chosen here to be $`25`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}^2`$.

Using the MRS(G)  set of parton densities in the proton evaluated at a scale $`M_W^2`$ and the GRVG-LO  set of parton densities in the photon evaluated at a scale $`p_W^2/10`$, the cross sections are $`0.52`$ $`\mathrm{pb}`$ for $`W^+`$ and $`0.42`$ $`\mathrm{pb}`$ for $`W^{}`$ production via reaction (1), giving a total of $`0.95`$ $`\mathrm{pb}`$.

The cross section for the process $`e^+p\overline{\nu }W^+X`$, also calculated using EPVEC, is only about $`5\%`$ of that for reaction (1). The $`Z^0`$ production process $`e^+pe^+Z^0X`$, with a cross section of around $`0.3`$ $`\mathrm{pb}`$, has been simulated using EPVEC in order to estimate the contribution of $`Z^0l^+l^{}`$ and $`Z^0\nu \overline{\nu }`$ decays to the high-$`P_T`$ lepton samples considered here.

### 2.2 Cross-Section Uncertainties

The use of different proton and photon parton densities changes the calculated $`W`$-production cross section by up to $`5\%`$ and $`10\%`$, respectively. Large uncertainties also result from the choice of hard scale used to evaluate the structure functions. Added in quadrature, the combined effect of these uncertainties leads to an estimated overall uncertainty in the $`W`$-production cross section of about $`20\%`$.

EPVEC is a leading-order program and includes no QCD radiation. A recent calculation of the cross section for reaction (1) includes a next-to-leading-order (NLO) calculation of the resolved-photon contribution . The result is $`0.97`$ $`\mathrm{pb}`$, close to the EPVEC estimate of $`0.95`$ $`\mathrm{pb}`$. The scale dependence of the NLO cross section is reduced to the $`5`$-$`10\%`$ level, although the structure-function-related uncertainties remain. Changes to the hadronic-$`P_T`$ spectrum due to higher-order effects, which could be important for some acceptance calculations and for setting coupling limits, are currently unknown.

## 3 Background Processes

The most important background to $`W`$ production in the electron decay channel arises from high-$`Q^2`$ charged- and neutral-current deep inelastic scattering. These have both been simulated using the event generator DJANGO6 , an interface to the Monte Carlo programs HERACLES 4.5  and LEPTO 6.5 . Leading-order QCD and electroweak radiative corrections are included and higher-order QCD effects are simulated via parton cascades using both the parton shower and matrix elements approach of LEPTO and the colour-dipole model ARIADNE . The final hadronisation of the partonic final state is performed with JETSET .

Two-photon processes provide an additional source of high-$`P_T`$ leptons which are a significant background in the muon decay channel. The dominant, Bethe-Heitler, process has been simulated using the event generator LPAIR  including both elastic and inelastic production at the proton vertex.

Finally, photoproduction has been simulated with the HERWIG  Monte Carlo program, including both resolved and direct photon contributions.

## 4 The ZEUS Detector

A detailed description of the ZEUS detector can be found elsewhere . The main components used in this analysis were the compensating uranium-scintillator calorimeter (CAL) and the central tracking detector (CTD).

The CAL is divided into three parts, forward (FCAL) covering the polar angle<sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2The ZEUS coordinate system is right-handed with the $`Z`$-axis pointing in the proton beam direction and the horizontal $`X`$-axis pointing towards the centre of HERA. The polar angle, $`\theta `$, is measured with respect to the $`+Z`$-axis and the pseudorapidity, $`\eta `$, is related to the polar angle by $`\eta =\mathrm{ln}(\mathrm{tan}(\theta /2))`$. interval $`3^{}<\theta <37^{}`$, barrel (BCAL) covering the range $`37^{}<\theta <129^{}`$ and rear (RCAL) covering the range $`129^{}<\theta <176^{}`$, as viewed from the nominal interaction point . Each part is divided into towers approximately $`20\times 20`$ $`\mathrm{cm}`$ in transverse size and segmented longitudinally into an electromagnetic (EMC) section and two hadronic (HAC) sections (one in RCAL). Within the EMC section each tower is further subdivided transversely into four cells (two in RCAL). Each cell is read out by a pair of wavelength shifters and photomultiplier tubes. Calorimeter energy resolutions of $`\sigma _E/E=18\%/\sqrt{E(\mathrm{GeV})}`$ for electrons and $`\sigma _E/E=35\%/\sqrt{E(\mathrm{GeV})}`$ for hadrons have been measured under test-beam conditions. An instrumented-iron backing calorimeter (BAC) measures energy leakages from the central uranium calorimeter .

The CTD is a cylindrical multi-wire drift chamber operating in a $`1.43`$ $`\mathrm{T}`$ solenoidal magnetic field . A momentum measurement, for tracks passing through at least 2 of the 9 radial superlayers, can be made in the polar angle range $`15^{}<\theta <164^{}`$. The transverse-momentum resolution for full length tracks can be parameterised as $`\sigma (P_T)/P_T=0.0058P_T0.00650.0014/P_T`$, with $`P_T`$ in $`\mathrm{GeV}`$.

The luminosity is determined from the rate of high-energy photons produced in the process $`epep\gamma `$ which are measured in a lead-scintillator calorimeter located at $`Z=107`$ $`\mathrm{m}`$ .

The ZEUS three-level trigger system efficiently selects events with large missing and total transverse energies . Several triggers at each level are used to tag events used for this analysis, with the relevant energy thresholds generally reduced if a good CTD track is present in addition to large calorimeter energies. Algorithms based on tracking and calorimeter timing information reject non-$`ep`$ backgrounds, consisting mainly of proton beam-gas interactions and cosmic rays.

## 5 Event Reconstruction and Pre-selection

The calorimeter transverse momentum is defined as :

$$\text{calorimeter }P_T=\sqrt{(\underset{i}{}p_{X,i})^2+(\underset{i}{}p_{Y,i})^2},$$
(2)   
where $`p_{X,i}=E_i\mathrm{sin}\theta _i\mathrm{cos}\varphi _i`$ and $`p_{Y,i}=E_i\mathrm{sin}\theta _i\mathrm{sin}\varphi _i`$ are calculated using the energies ($`E_i`$) of individual calorimeter cells that are above noise thresholds of $`80`$ $`\mathrm{MeV}`$ (EMC) and $`140`$ $`\mathrm{MeV}`$ (HAC). The angles $`\theta _i`$ and $`\varphi _i`$ are estimated from the geometric cell centres and the event vertex. Note that in $`We\nu `$ events, calorimeter $`P_T`$ as defined above is an estimate of the missing $`P_T`$ or transverse momentum carried by the neutrino. In muon events, a combination of the calorimeter $`P_T`$ and the transverse momentum of the muon track measured in the CTD is used to calculate the missing $`P_T`$.

Electron (hadron) transverse momenta are defined as sums over those calorimeter cells that are (are not) assigned to the electron candidate cluster. Longitudinal momentum conservation ensures that $`Ep_Z`$, defined as :

$$Ep_Z=\underset{i}{}E_i(1\mathrm{cos}\theta _i),$$

peaks at $`2E_e`$ for fully contained events, where $`E_e`$ is the electron beam energy. Smaller values of $`Ep_Z`$ indicate energy escaping detection, either in the rear beam pipe or in the form of muons or neutrinos.

The acoplanarity angle $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{ACOP}}`$, illustrated in Fig. 2, is the azimuthal separation of the outgoing lepton and the vector in the $`\{X,Y\}`$-plane that balances the hadronic-$`P_T`$ vector. For well measured neutral-current events the acoplanarity angle is close to zero, while large acoplanarity angles indicate large missing energies. The transverse mass  is defined as

$$M_T=\sqrt{2P_T^lP_T^\nu (1\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Phi }^{l\nu })},$$

where $`P_T^l`$ is the lepton transverse momentum, $`P_T^\nu `$ is the magnitude of the missing $`P_T`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }^{l\nu }`$ is the azimuthal separation of the lepton and missing-$`P_T`$ vectors, as shown in Fig. 2.

Events that pass the trigger requirements are further required to have a reconstructed calorimeter $`P_T`$ in excess of $`12`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$. The transverse momentum, calculated excluding the inner ring of calorimeter cells around the forward beam-pipe hole, must be greater than $`9`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$. These offline cuts are more stringent than the corresponding online trigger thresholds in any given year of data taking. Other pre-selection cuts common to both the electron and muon event selections are the requirements that the $`Z`$-coordinate of the tracking vertex be reconstructed within $`50`$ $`\mathrm{cm}`$ of the nominal interaction point and have at least one associated track with transverse momentum greater than $`0.2`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$ and a polar angle in the range $`15^{}<\theta <164^{}`$. Cuts on the calorimeter timing and algorithms based on the pattern of tracks in the CTD reject beam-gas, cosmic-ray and halo-muon events.

## 6 Search for $`W`$ Production and Decay $`We\nu `$

Electron-identification criteria are applied to the pre-selected events and the data are subsequently compared to the Monte Carlo simulation. Final results are presented after further cuts designed to optimise the sensitivity to the $`W`$-production signal.

### 6.1 Electron Identification

A neural-network-based algorithm to identify electrons, trained on Monte Carlo events and optimised for maximum electron-finding efficiency and electron-hadron separation, selects candidate electromagnetic clusters in the calorimeter . A cut on the electromagnetic-cluster energy of $`8`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$ is made, above which the neural network is fully efficient except at the boundaries between the different calorimeter parts. The impact point of the electron at the face of the calorimeter is determined with a resolution of $`1`$ $`\mathrm{cm}`$ using the pulse height information from the pairs of photomultipliers reading out each cell. The distance of closest approach of a matching extrapolated CTD track to the electromagnetic cluster is required to be less than $`10`$ $`\mathrm{cm}`$, where only tracks with $`15^{}<\theta <164^{}`$ are considered. The background from fake electrons is reduced by requiring that the energy not associated with the electron in an $`\{\eta ,\varphi \}`$ cone of radius $`0.8`$ around the electron direction be less than $`4`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$. Moreover, since most fake electron candidates are misidentified hadrons close to jets, this background is further reduced by requiring that the electron track be separated by at least $`0.5`$ units in $`\{\eta ,\varphi \}`$ space from other tracks associated with the event vertex.

### 6.2 Comparison of Data and Monte Carlo

The data are compared to the expectation from the Monte Carlo simulation in Fig. 3, after requiring that the transverse momentum of the electron, $`P_T^e`$, be greater than $`5`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$ and the polar angle of the electron measured in the calorimeter, $`\theta _e`$, be less than $`2.0`$ $`\mathrm{rad}`$. Neutral-current background events dominate the sample at this stage of the selection, as is evident from the steeply falling missing-$`P_T`$ spectrum and the concentration of events at small acoplanarity angles. A Jacobian-peak structure is visible in the transverse-mass distribution for the Monte Carlo simulation of the signal events, shown in Fig. 3(f). Figure 3(g) shows the $`P_T`$ reconstructed in the backing calorimeter and Fig. 3(h) shows the azimuthal separation between the BAC $`P_T`$ and uranium-calorimeter missing-$`P_T`$ directions, for events with BAC energy deposits. All distributions show reasonable agreement between the data and Monte Carlo.

### 6.3 Final Cuts and Results

The neutral-current background is heavily suppressed by requiring the missing $`P_T`$ to be greater than $`20`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$ and the acoplanarity angle to be greater than $`0.3`$ $`\mathrm{rad}`$, indicated by the arrows in Figs. 3(d) and (e). The latter cut is only applied to events with a hadronic $`P_T`$ in excess of $`4`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$, for which the acoplanarity angle is well defined. Electrons in the final event sample must, in addition, have $`P_T^e>10`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$ and $`\theta _e<1.5`$ $`\mathrm{rad}`$. Neutral-current background is further reduced by removing events with energy deposits in the backing calorimeter that are closely aligned with the direction of the missing $`P_T`$. Finally, requiring that the matching electron track have a transverse momentum greater than $`5`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$, as measured in the CTD, removes most of the remaining fake electrons.

Three data events, all of which have a final-state $`e^+`$, survive these cuts. The properties of these events are given in Table 1 and compared in Fig. 4 to the $`W`$-production Monte Carlo with all cuts applied.

For these figures and the table, the electron and hadron energies used in calculating the missing $`P_T`$ and transverse mass have been corrected for the effect of the inactive material between the $`ep`$ interaction point and the calorimeter. The corrections are typically a few percent for the electron and $`10\%`$ for the hadron transverse momenta. The momenta of the electrons measured in the CTD agree within errors with the corrected associated calorimeter energies. Given the different cross sections and selection efficiencies for $`W^+`$ and $`W^{}`$ production and decay, roughly $`60\%`$ of signal events are expected to have an $`e^+`$ rather than an $`e^{}`$ in the final state, while background events are expected to contain predominantly $`e^+`$ candidates. The charge composition of the sample is therefore consistent with expectations. The event in Table 1 with the highest transverse mass is illustrated in Fig. 5. Event 2 has a similar topology while event 1 has no visible hadronic jet and consequently a small value for the reconstructed hadronic $`P_T`$.

The Monte Carlo expectation after all cuts is $`2.1`$ signal events and $`1.1`$ $`\pm `$ $`0.3`$ background events. The background consists mainly of charged-current DIS, with smaller contributions from Bethe-Heitler di-lepton production and $`Z^0\nu \overline{\nu }`$ events in which the beam electron is scattered at small polar angles. Taking into account the efficiency for selecting $`We\nu `$ events of $`38\%`$ and the small extra sensitivity resulting from a $`2\%`$ efficiency for selecting $`W\tau \nu `$ decays, the three events, after subtracting the expected background, correspond to a measured cross section for reaction (1) of :

$$\sigma (e^+pe^+W^\pm X)=\mathrm{\hspace{0.25em}\hspace{0.25em}\hspace{0.25em}0.9}_{\mathrm{\hspace{0.25em}0.7}}^{+\mathrm{\hspace{0.25em}1.0}}\text{(stat.)}\pm \mathrm{\hspace{0.25em}\hspace{0.25em}0.2}\text{(syst.)}\mathrm{pb}.$$

The systematic error is a combination of the uncertainty in the selection efficiency for $`We\nu `$ events, the uncertainty in the estimate of the remaining background to $`W`$ production and decay, and a small contribution from the uncertainty in the total integrated luminosity. The systematic uncertainty in the selection efficiency arises from uncertainties in the electron-finding procedure and the $`3\%`$ uncertainty in the absolute calorimeter energy scale. The error on the background estimate is a combination of statistical errors and uncertainties due to the choice of model for simulating parton cascades in the DIS Monte Carlo.

From the three observed events, an explicit upper limit on the $`W`$-production cross section has been derived, using the background expected from Monte Carlo and applying the method described in  :

$$\sigma (e^+pe^+W^\pm X)<\mathrm{\hspace{0.25em}\hspace{0.25em}3.3}\mathrm{pb}\mathrm{at}95\%\mathrm{C}.\mathrm{L}.$$

The selection efficiency in the electron channel depends little on the recoiling hadronic $`P_T`$. This implies that the upper limit given above is insensitive to uncertainties in the underlying hadronic-$`P_T`$ distribution arising from higher-order effects or anomalous $`WW\gamma `$ couplings.

## 7 Search for $`W`$ Production and Decay $`W\mu \nu `$

The search for reaction (1) with the subsequent decay $`W\mu \nu `$ begins with the same sample of events with a large calorimeter missing $`P_T`$ used in the electron analysis (see Section 5). However, since a high-energy muon leaves only a small energy deposit in the calorimeter, this selection necessarily restricts the acceptance to $`W`$-production events with large hadronic transverse momenta.

### 7.1 Muon Identification

The energy deposited by minimum-ionising particles (MIP’s) can be distributed across several calorimeter clusters. Therefore neighbouring clusters are grouped together into larger scale objects which, providing they pass topological and energy cuts, are called calorimeter MIP’s. In this analysis, a muon candidate is simply a calorimeter MIP that matches an extrapolated CTD track within $`20`$ $`\mathrm{cm}`$, where only tracks in the polar angle range $`15^{}<\theta <164^{}`$ are considered. The muon transverse momentum, $`P_T^\mu `$, and direction, including the polar angle, $`\theta _\mu `$, are obtained from the matching CTD track. The same energy- and track-isolation requirements made in the electron analysis are also applied here to the muon candidate.

### 7.2 Comparison of Data and Monte Carlo

The data and Monte Carlo predictions are compared in Fig. 6, after requiring $`P_T^\mu >5`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$ and $`\theta _\mu <2.0`$ $`\mathrm{rad}`$. Events with more than one muon candidate having $`P_T^\mu >2`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$ have been removed. Fig. 6(d) shows the missing transverse momentum, calculated by combining the muon and calorimeter $`P_T`$’s in the transverse plane after subtracting the muon’s contribution to the latter. In each case the distribution of events is similar to that expected from the Monte Carlo simulation of the background, which is dominated by Bethe-Heitler di-muon production.

### 7.3 Final Cuts and Results

The final stage in the selection of $`W\mu \nu `$ events requires the missing transverse momentum to be greater than $`15`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$. No data event survives this final cut, shown in Fig. 6(d), to be compared with an expected $`0.76`$ events from $`W`$ production and $`0.65\pm 0.22`$ from background. The latter is dominated by charged-current DIS and Bethe-Heitler $`\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ production. The efficiency for selecting $`W\mu \nu `$ events is $`13\%`$, lower than the corresponding efficiency in the electron channel due to the soft hadronic-$`P_T`$ spectrum expected for reaction (1). The resulting $`95\%`$ C.L. upper limit on the cross section for this reaction is therefore weaker, at $`3.7`$ $`\mathrm{pb}`$. Note that the value for the efficiency in the muon channel, calculated here using EPVEC, is much more sensitive to assumptions about the hadronic-$`P_T`$ distribution than the corresponding efficiency in the electron channel.

## 8 $`W`$ Production at Large Hadronic $`P_T`$

The final electron and muon samples described in Sections 6.3 and 7.3, respectively, are combined and events which have large hadronic $`P_T`$ are selected. The number of events with a corrected hadronic $`P_T`$ above specified values is shown in Table 2, along with the number of $`W`$-production and background events expected from Monte Carlo. The efficiencies listed in the table have been calculated for the subset of $`W`$-production events that have a true hadronic $`P_T`$ above the given value. They are averaged over all decay channels, thereby including a small contribution from $`W\tau \nu `$ decays. The resulting $`95\%`$ C.L. upper limits on the cross section for the reaction $`e^+pe^+W^\pm X`$ at large hadronic $`P_T`$ are also given in the table. Note that the selection efficiency in the muon channel is small for low hadronic $`P_T`$, reaching a plateau comparable to the efficiency in the electron channel at around $`20`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$. Cross-section limits for cuts on the hadronic $`P_T`$ at or above this value are insensitive to the underlying hadronic-$`P_T`$ distribution.

The limits given in Table 2 can be used to constrain various any new physics processes which produce events with a $`W`$ boson and large hadronic $`P_T`$. Such model-dependent analyses are outside of the scope of this paper. It is nevertheless useful to parameterise such effects in terms of anomalous $`WW\gamma `$ couplings, which give rise to a harder distribution of the transverse momentum of the $`W`$ than expected in the Standard Model. The most general effective Lagrangian that is consistent with Lorentz invariance, CP conservation and electromagnetic gauge invariance, has two free couplings at the $`WW\gamma `$ vertex that are conventionally labelled $`\kappa `$ and $`\lambda `$ . In the Standard Model they take the values $`\kappa =1`$ and $`\lambda =0`$; deviations are parameterised in terms of the anomalous couplings $`\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa =\kappa 1`$ and $`\lambda `$. The dependence of the total $`W`$-production cross section on these anomalous couplings is calculated using EPVEC. For example, the upper limit of $`0.58`$ $`\mathrm{pb}`$ for hadronic $`P_T>20`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$ corresponds to the following $`95\%`$ C.L. limits on $`\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa `$ and $`\lambda `$ :

$`4.7<`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa `$ $`<\mathrm{\hspace{0.25em}\hspace{0.25em}1.5}(\lambda =0),`$   
$`3.2<`$ $`\lambda `$ $`<\mathrm{\hspace{0.25em}\hspace{0.25em}3.2}(\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa =0).`$   
These limits on anomalous $`WW\gamma `$ couplings are insensitive to the assumed couplings at the $`WWZ`$ vertex due to the suppression by the propagator mass. They are however significantly larger than the limits derived from analyses at the Tevatron  and LEP2 .

## 9 Isolated-Track Search

The H1 collaboration has recently reported the observation of six events containing an isolated high-$`P_T`$ lepton and large missing $`P_T`$ in $`36.5`$ $`\mathrm{pb}^1`$ of $`e^+p`$ data . The H1 search required isolated tracks with $`P_T>10`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$ and a calorimeter $`P_T`$ exceeding $`25`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$. Five of the events contain muons, which may be compared to the $`0.5`$ $`W`$ events and $`0.25`$ other events (mainly $`\gamma \gamma \mu ^+\mu ^{}`$) expected.

Although the ZEUS data presented above are in good agreement with Standard Model expectations, a separate search has been performed for isolated high-$`P_T`$ tracks in events with a large missing $`P_T`$, applying cuts similar to those used by H1. Because of the typical $`10\%`$ difference between observed and corrected hadronic-$`P_T`$ values, all events that have an uncorrected calorimeter $`P_T`$ greater than $`20`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$ are selected. In addition, the events are required to contain at least one jet with $`E_T>5`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$, an electromagnetic fraction less than $`0.9`$ and an angular size greater than $`0.1`$ $`\mathrm{rad}`$. Events with a neutral-current topology that have an acoplanarity angle less than $`0.2`$ $`\mathrm{rad}`$ are excluded. The high-$`P_T`$ track must pass through at least 3 radial superlayers of the CTD (corresponding to $`\theta 0.3`$ $`\mathrm{rad}`$) and have $`\theta <2.0`$ $`\mathrm{rad}`$. The isolation variables $`\mathrm{D}_{\mathrm{jet}}`$ and $`\mathrm{D}_{\mathrm{trk}}`$ are defined for a given track as the $`\{\eta ,\varphi \}`$ separation of that track from the nearest jet and the nearest neighbouring track in the event, respectively. All tracks with $`P_T>10`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$ in the selected events are plotted in the $`\{\mathrm{D}_{\mathrm{trk}},\mathrm{D}_{\mathrm{jet}}\}`$ plane in Fig. 7. The $`3`$ tracks selected with $`\mathrm{D}_{\mathrm{trk}}>0.5`$ and $`\mathrm{D}_{\mathrm{jet}}>1.0`$ agree well with the expectation of $`5.7\pm 0.8`$ tracks from combined Monte Carlo sources.

All three isolated tracks are positively charged and are identified as electrons using the algorithm and criteria described above. This is consistent with the $`3.5\pm 0.7`$ ($`2.0\pm 0.4`$) electron type (muon type) events expected from Monte Carlo, of which $`0.9`$ ($`0.4`$) are from $`W`$ production. Two of the isolated tracks correspond to events 2 and 3 of Table 1. The third track is found in an event with neutral-current topology in which there is evidence of a large energy leakage into the backing calorimeter. There is therefore no evidence of an excess of isolated high-$`P_T`$ tracks, whether identified as leptons or not, in the $`19941997`$ ZEUS data.

## 10 Conclusions

A search for the decay $`We\nu `$ in $`e^+p`$ collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $`300`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$ yields three candidate events, of which $`1.1\pm 0.3`$ are estimated to arise from sources other than $`W`$ production. This results in an estimate of the cross section for the process $`e^+pe^+W^\pm X`$ of $`0.9_{0.7}^{+1.0}\pm 0.2`$ $`\mathrm{pb}`$, consistent with the Standard Model prediction. The corresponding $`95\%`$ C.L. upper limit on the cross section of $`3.3`$ $`\mathrm{pb}`$ is insensitive to uncertainties in the underlying hadronic-$`P_T`$ distribution. A search for the decay $`W\mu \nu `$ yields no candidate event, also consistent with Standard Model expectations. Events with large hadronic $`P_T`$ in the combined electron plus muon sample have been used to set $`95\%`$ C.L. upper limits on the cross section for $`W`$ production, for example $`0.58`$ $`\mathrm{pb}`$ for hadronic $`P_T`$ greater than $`20`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$.

A number of events with large missing $`P_T`$ and an isolated high-$`P_T`$ lepton, in excess of Standard Model expectations, has been reported by the H1 collaboration. The search presented in this paper, with similar cuts and sensitivity, has revealed no such excess.

## Acknowledgements

This work would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts of the HERA machine group and the DESY computing staff. We would also like to thank the DESY directorate for their strong support and encouragement throughout. The design, construction and installation of the ZEUS detector would not have been possible without the hard work of many people who are not listed as authors. In addition, it is a pleasure to thank U. Baur, D. Zeppenfeld and M. Spira for providing their calculations and for many fruitful discussions.