Nuclear Physics With Polarized Particles

The measurement of spin-polarization observables in reactions of nuclei and particles is of great utility and advantage when the effects of single-spin sub-states are to be investigated. Indeed, the unpolarized differential cross-section encompasses the averaging over the spin states of the particles, and thus loses details of the interaction process. This introductory text combines, in a single volume, course-based lecture notes on spin physics and on polarized-ion sources with the aim of providing a concise yet self-contained starting point for newcomers to the field, as well as for lecturers in search of suitable material for their courses and seminars. A significant part of the book is devoted to introducing the formal theory—a description of polarization and of nuclear reactions with polarized particles. The remainder of the text describes the physical basis of methods and devices necessary to perform experiments with polarized particles and to measure polarization and polarization effects in nuclear reactions. The book concludes with a brief review of modern applications in medicine and fusion energy research. For reasons of conciseness and of the pedagogical aims of this volume, examples are mainly taken from low-energy installations such as tandem Van de Graaff laboratories, although the emphasis of present research is shifting to medium- and high-energy nuclear physics. Consequently, this volume is restricted to describing non-relativistic processes and focuses on the energy range from astrophysical energies (a few keV) to tens of MeV. It is further restricted to polarimetry of hadronic particles.

The various phenomena caused by refraction and diffraction of polarized elementary particles in matter have opened up a new research area in the particle physics: nuclear optics of polarized particles. Effects similar to the well-known optical phenomena such as birefringence and Faraday effects, exist also in particle physics, though the particle wavelength is much less than the distance between atoms of matter. Current knowledge of the quasi-optical effects, which exist for all particles in any wavelength range (and energies from low to extremely high), will enable us to investigate different properties of interacting particles (nuclei) in a new aspect. This pioneering book will provide detailed accounts of quasi-optical phenomena in the particle polarization, and will interest physicists and professionals in experimental particle physics.

This book allows the reader to understand the fundamentals of polarization phenomena in a general spin system, showing the polarizations to be indispensable information source of spin-dependent interactions. Particularly, the book describes polarization phenomena in nuclear scattering and reactions in detail, and explains how they provide information concerning spin-dependent interactions between the related particles. The concepts of polarization observables are explained, explicitly in the scattering of protons, deuterons and 7Li nuclei. In looking at deuteron and 7Li scattering, interactions induced by the virtual excitation of projectiles are examined in detail. Resonance reactions are investigated, focusing attention on the polarization of observables, which suggests that polarization phenomena can be used to determine the spin parity of the resonance. It is noted that in few-nucleon systems, the discrepancy between the values of polarization observables based on theoretical models and the corresponding values obtained through experimental data, is an important problem to be solved in the future. Solving this problem should provide new knowledge concerning the nuclear forces between nucleons.The author has chosen open-access publishing for this book to allow any interested person to study this branch of nuclear physics.

This book is devoted to the polarization (spin) physics of high energy particles and contains three parts. The first part presents the theoretical prefaces of polarization in the particle physics for interpretations, predictions and bases for understanding the following two parts. The second part of the book presents the description of the essential polarization experiments including the recent ones. This part is devoted to the innovative instrumentations, gives the parameters of the polarized beams, targets, polarized gas jets and polarimeters. The third part of the book concentrates on the important achievements in polarization physics. The book can be used in lectures on nuclear and particle physics and and nuclear instruments and methods. As supplementary reading this book is useful for researchers working in particle and nuclear physics.

The measurement of spin-polarization observables in reactions of nuclei and particles is of great utility and advantage when the effects of single-spin sub-states are to be investigated. Indeed, the unpolarized differential cross-section encompasses the averaging over the spin states of the particles, and thus loses details of the interaction process. This introductory text combines, in a single volume, course-based lecture notes on spin physics and on polarized-ion sources with the aim of providing a concise yet self-contained starting point for newcomers to the field, as well as for lecturers in search of suitable material for their courses and seminars. A significant part of the book is devoted to introducing the formal theory—a description of polarization and of nuclear reactions with polarized particles. The remainder of the text describes the physical basis of methods and devices necessary to perform experiments with polarized particles and to measure polarization and polarization effects in nuclear reactions. The book concludes with a brief review of modern applications in medicine and fusion energy research. For reasons of conciseness and of the pedagogical aims of this volume, examples are mainly taken from low-energy installations such as tandem Van de Graaff laboratories, although the emphasis of present research is shifting to medium- and high-energy nuclear physics. Consequently, this volume is restricted to describing non-relativistic processes and focuses on the energy range from astrophysical energies (a few keV) to tens of MeV. It is further restricted to polarimetry of hadronic particles.

Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics, Volume 26 covers the significant advances in understanding the fundamentals of particle and nuclear physics. This volume is divided into four chapters, and begins with a brief overview of the various possible ideas beyond the standard model, the problem they address and their experimental tests. The next chapter deals with the basic physics of neutrino mass based on from a gauge theoretic point of view. This chapter considers the various extensions of the standard electroweak theory, along with their implications for neutrino physics. The discussion then shifts to the principles of slow neutrons and their fundamental interactions, as well as some slow neutron experiments. The final chapter surveys the role of strangeness in the context of dense hadronic matter, including strangeness as a probe of the dynamics of relativistic heavy ion collisions and its importance in astrophysics. This book will prove useful to physicists and allied scientists.

This book provides the reader with a modern and comprehensive overview of nuclear polarization theory. The understanding of polarization phenomena greatly enriches data obtained from scattering and nuclear reactions by providing information on the interaction that can change spin orientation as well as important verification data for the study of nuclear structures and reaction mechanisms. The author methodically derives the polarization theory of nuclear reactions for various types of elastic scattering and two-body direct reactions between particles of different spin and unpolarized target nuclei with arbitrary spin, as well as the reactions between two polarized light particles and the polarization theory for photon beams. In addition, the polarization theories of relativistic nuclear reactions are rigorously covered in great scope and detail. A chapter on polarized particle transport theory presents the Monte-Carlo method for describing the transport of polarized particles and formalizes the polarized particle transport equation. Here, the author also illustrates a novel and concrete scheme for establishing a polarization nuclear database. Nuclear polarization is important not only for microscopic nuclear structure and reaction studies but also for nuclear engineering, applied nuclear physics, and medical physics. With the development of radioactive beam facilities and, on the theoretical side, the development of consistent microscopic nuclear reaction and structure theories, this book on the polarization theory of nuclear reactions serves as a timely source of reference for students and researchers alike.