Observation of hard processes in rapidity gap events in γp interactions at HERA

Events with no hadronic energy flow in a large interval of pseudo-rapidity in the proton direction are observed in photon-proton interactions at an average centre of mass energy 〈√sγp〉 of 200 GeV These events are interpreted as photon diffractive dissociation. Evidence for hard scattering in photon diffractive dissociation is demonstrated using inclusive single particle spectra, thrust as a function of transverse energy, and the observation of jet production. The data can be described by a Monte Carlo calculation including hard photon-pomeron scattering.