D. Rohe

Realization of a broad band neutron spin filter with compressed, polarized 3He gas☆

The strongly spin dependent absorption of neutrons in nuclear spin polarized 3He opens the possibility to polarize beams of thermal and epithermal neutrons. An effective 3He neutron spin filter (NSF) requires high 3He nuclear polarization as well as a filter thickness corresponding to a gas amount of the order of 1 barl. We realized such a filter using direct optical pumping of metastable 3He∗ atoms in a 3He plasma at 1 mbar. Metastable exchange scattering transfers the angular momentum to the whole ensemble of 3He atoms. At present 3 × 1018 3He-atoms/s are polarized up to 64%. Subsequent polarization preserving compression by a two stage compressor system enables to prepare NSF cells of about 300 cm3 volume with 3 bar of polarized 3He within 2 h. 3He polarizations up to 53% were measured in a cell with a filter length of about 15 cm. By this cell a thermal neutron beam from the Mainz TRIGA reactor was polarized. A wavelength selective polarization analysis by means of Bragg scattering revealed a neutron polarization of 84% at a total transmission of 12% for a neutron wavelength of 1 A.

Precise neutron magnetic form factors

Precise data on the neutron magnetic form factor Gmn have been obtained with measurements of the ratio of cross sections of D(e, en) and D(e, ep) up to momentum transfers of Q 2 = 0.9 (GeV/c) 2 . Data with typical uncertainties of 1.5% are presented. These data allow for the first time to extract a precise value of the magnetic radius of the neutron.  2002 Elsevier

A high-precision polarimeter

We have built a polarimeter in order to measure the electron beam polarization in hall C at JLAB. Using a superconducting solenoid to drive the pure-iron target foil into saturation, and a symmetrical setup to detect the Moller electrons in coincidence, we achieve an accuracy of <1%. This sets a new standard for Moller polarimeters.

The neutron charge form factor and target analyzing powers from 3He(e→,e′n) scattering

The charge form factor of the neutron has been determined from asymmetries measured in quasi-elastic 3 (He) over right arrow((e) over right arrow, e`n) at a momentum transfer of 0.67 (GeV/c)(2). In addition, the target analyzing power, A(y)(0), has been measured to study effects of final state interactions and meson exchange currents.

Polarization transfer in the 4He(e→, e′ p→)3H reaction

We have measured the proton recoil polarization in the {sup 4}He(polarized-e, e-prime, p){sup 3}H reaction at Q{sup 2} = 0.5, 1.0, 1.6, and 2.6 (GeV/c){sup 2}. The measured ratio of polarization transfer coefficients differs from a fully relativistic calculation, favoring the inclusion of a predicted medium modification of the proton form factors based on a quark-meson coupling model. In contrast, the measured induced polarizations agree reasonably well with the fully relativistic calculation indicating that the treatment of final-state interactions is under control.

Proton G_E/G_M from beam-target asymmetry

The ratio of the protons electric to magnetic form factor, G{sub E}/G{sub M}, can be extracted in elastic electron-proton scattering by measuring cross sections, beam-target asymmetry, or recoil polarization. Separate determinations of G{sub E}/G{sub M} by cross sections and recoil polarization observables disagree for Q{sup 2}>1 (GeV/c){sup 2}. Measurement by a third technique might uncover an unknown systematic error in either of the previous measurements. The beam-target asymmetry has been measured for elastic electron-proton scattering at Q{sup 2} = 1.51 (GeV/c){sup 2} for target spin orientation aligned perpendicular to the beam momentum direction. This is the largest Q{sup 2} at which G{sub E}/G{sub M} has been determined by a beam-target asymmetry experiment. The result, {mu}G{sub E}/G{sub M}=0.884{+-}0.027{+-}0.029, is compared to previous world data.

First determination of generalized polarizabilities of the proton by a virtual compton scattering experiment.

Absolute differential cross sections for the reaction (e+p ->e+p+gamma) have been measured at a four-momentum transfer with virtuality Q^2=0.33 GeV^2 and polarization \epsilon = 0.62 in the range 33.6 to 111.5 MeV/c for the momentum of the outgoing photon in the photon-proton center of mass frame. The experiment has been performed with the high resolution spectrometers at the Mainz Microtron MAMI. From the photon angular distributions, two structure functions which are a linear combination of the generalized polarizabilities have been determined for the first time.

Interdisciplinary experiments with polarized 3He

Abstract Optical pumping of metastable 3 He atoms is a very efficient method to produce large quantities of nuclear spin-polarized 3 He. Recent developments in mechanical compression of the gas, its storage and transport allow for its flexible use in different fields of physics and applied science. Among these are (1) scattering experiments of polarized beams from polarized 3 He-targets, (2) 3 He as neutron spin filter to polarize neutron beams at research reactors, and (3) polarized 3 He gas inhaled into the lungs to perform magnetic resonance imaging. The paper discusses the different topics along with results obtained in a first round of experiments.

Development of a Dense Polarized 3He Spin Filter Based on Compression of Optically Pumped Gas

Abstract Intense polarized neutron beams are required for a broad range of experiments in condensed matter and nuclear physics.

Proton Spin Structure in the Resonance Region

We have examined the spin structure of the proton in the region of the nucleon resonances (1.085 GeV<W<1.910 GeV) at an average four momentum transfer of Q2=1.3 GeV2. Using the Jefferson Lab polarized electron beam, a spectrometer, and a polarized solid target, we measured the asymmetries A|| and A(perpendicular) to high precision, and extracted the asymmetries A1 and A2, and the spin structure functions g1 and g2. We found a notably nonzero A(perpendicular), significant contributions from higher-twist effects, and only weak support for polarized quark-hadron duality.