Energy flow and rapidity gaps between jets in photoproduction at HERA

Dijet events in photon-proton collisions in which there is a large pseudorapidity separation between the two highest jets are studied with the H1 detector at HERA. The inclusive dijet cross sections are measured as functions of the longitudinal momentum fractions of the proton and photon which participate in the production of the jets, and respectively, , the pseudorapidity separation between the two highest jets, and , the total summed transverse energy between the jets. Rapidity gap events are defined as events in which is less than , for varied between 0.5 and 2.0 GeV. The fraction of dijet events with a rapidity gap is measured differentially in , and . An excess of events with rapidity gaps at low values of is observed above the expectation from standard photoproduction processes. This excess can be explained by the exchange of a strongly interacting colour singlet object between the jets. Received: 8 March 2002 / Published online: 5 July 2002