Measurement of neutral and charged current cross sections in electron-proton collisions at high $Q^2$

Abstract.

The inclusive $e^- p$ single and double differential cross sections for neutral and charged current processes are measured with the H1 detector at HERA, in the range of four-momentum transfer squared $Q^2$ between 150 and 30 000 GeV$^2$, and Bjorken x between 0.002 and 0.65. The data were taken in 1998 and 1999 with a centre-of-mass energy of 320 GeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 16.4 pb$^{-1}$. The data are compared with recent measurements of the inclusive neutral and charged current $e^+ p$ cross sections. For $Q^2>1\,000{\rm GeV}^2$ clear evidence is observed for an asymmetry between $e^+p$ and $e^-p$ neutral current scattering and the generalised structure function $x{\tilde{F}_3}$ is extracted for the first time at HERA. A fit to the charged current data is used to extract a value for the W boson propagator mass. The data are found to be in good agreement with Standard Model predictions.