Hard Processes in Electron-proton Scattering

This report summarizes some of the recent HERA results obtained by studying hard processes in ep–scattering. By resolving the structure of the proton, hard ep– reactions provide information on the parton content of the proton and may give insight into the dynamics of the exchanged parton cascade. In addition, their study offers the possibility to test the Standard Model, in particular perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics, on which the theoretical predictions on ep–scattering cross sections are generally based. Any observed deviation between the data and existing theoretical models would either indicate the need to calculate higher order contributions or hint at signs of new physics.