0 v 1 9 F eb 2 00 3 DESY – 03 – 012 January 2003 Search for single - top production in ep collisions at HERA ZEUS

A search for single-top production, ep → etX, has been made with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 130.1 pb. Events from both the leptonic and hadronic decay channels of the W boson resulting from the decay of the top quark were sought. For the leptonic mode, the search was made for events with isolated high-energy leptons and significant missing transverse momentum. For the hadronic decay mode, three-jet events in which two of the jets had an invariant mass consistent with that of the W were selected. No evidence for top production was found. The results are used to constrain singletop production via flavour-changing neutral current (FCNC) transitions. The ZEUS limit excludes a substantial region in the FCNC tuγ coupling not ruled out by other experiments. The ZEUS Collaboration S. Chekanov, M. Derrick, D. Krakauer, J.H. Loizides, S. Magill, B. Musgrave, J. Repond, R. Yoshida Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439-4815 n M.C.K. Mattingly Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan 49104-0380 P. Antonioli, G. Bari, M. Basile, L. Bellagamba, D. Boscherini, A. Bruni, G. Bruni, G. Cara Romeo, L. Cifarelli, F. Cindolo, A. Contin, M. Corradi, S. De Pasquale, P. Giusti, G. Iacobucci, A. Margotti, R. Nania, F. Palmonari, A. Pesci, G. Sartorelli, A. Zichichi University and INFN Bologna, Bologna, Italy e G. Aghuzumtsyan, D. Bartsch, I. Brock, S. Goers, H. Hartmann, E. Hilger, P. Irrgang, H.-P. Jakob, A. Kappes, U.F. Katz, O. Kind, U. Meyer, E. Paul, J. Rautenberg, R. Renner, A. Stifutkin, J. Tandler, K.C. Voss, M. Wang, A. Weber Physikalisches Institut der Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany b D.S. Bailey, N.H. Brook, J.E. Cole, B. Foster, G.P. Heath, H.F. Heath, S. Robins, E. Rodrigues, J. Scott, R.J. Tapper, M. Wing H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom m M. Capua, A. Mastroberardino, M. Schioppa, G. Susinno Calabria University, Physics Department and INFN, Cosenza, Italy e J.Y. Kim, Y.K. Kim, J.H. Lee, I.T. Lim, M.Y. Pac Chonnam National University, Kwangju, Korea g A. Caldwell, M. Helbich, X. Liu, B. Mellado, Y. Ning, S. Paganis, Z. Ren, W.B. Schmidke, F. Sciulli Nevis Laboratories, Columbia University, Irvington on Hudson, New York 10027 o J. Chwastowski, A. Eskreys, J. Figiel, K. Olkiewicz, P. Stopa, L. Zawiejski Institute of Nuclear Physics, Cracow, Poland i L. Adamczyk, T. Bo ld, I. Grabowska-Bo ld, D. Kisielewska, A.M. Kowal, M. Kowal, T. Kowalski, M. Przybycień, L. Suszycki, D. Szuba, J. Szuba Faculty of Physics and Nuclear Techniques, University of Mining and Metallurgy, Cracow, Poland p A. Kotański, W. S lomiński Department of Physics, Jagellonian University, Cracow, Poland