First results from HERA

HERA is a new accelerator that has just come into operation at the DESY Laboratory in Hamburg. This accelerator collides electrons and protons for the first time in a colliding beam machine. The original motivation for HERA was many-fold: (1) to study the structure of the proton and of quarks; (2) to study the structure of the electro-weak interaction; and (3) to search for exotica, for example leptoquarks and supersymmetric particles. This could all be achieved using both unpolarized electron beams and the polarized electron beams that would naturally occur in the electron storage ring of HERA. In this presentation the author discusses the status of the HERA machine and describes the status of two experiments, H1 and ZEUS, which are designed to study deep inelastic phenomena. The author also reviews the initial physics that has emerged based on the results of H1 and ZEUS. The author concludes the presentation by presenting a summary of initial results from HERA and by discussing expectations for future research. 6 refs., 15 figs., 1 tab