A Proposal to the Department of Energy for The Fabrication of a Very High Energy Polarized Gama Ray Beam Facility and A Program of Medium Energy Physics Research at The National Synchrotron Light Source

Abstract

This proposal requests support for the fabrication and operation of a modest facility that would provide relatively intense beams of monochromatic and polarized photons with energies in the range of several hundreds of MeV. These {gamma} rays would be produced by Compton backscattering laser light from the electrons circulating in the 2.5-3.0 GeV 'X-RAY' storage ring of the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The excellent emittance, phase space, and high current of this state-of-the-art storage ring will allow the production of 2 x 10{sup 7} {gamma} rays per second. These photons would be tagged by detecting the scattered electrons, thereby determining the energy to 2.7 MeV for all {gamma}-ray energies. The efficiency of this tagging procedure is 100% and the {gamma}-ray beam would be essentially background free. Tagging will also allow the flexibility of operating with a dynamic range as large as 200 MeV in photon energy while still preserving high resolution and polarization. These beams will permit a fruitful study of important questions in medium-energy nuclear physics. The initial goals of this program are to reach reliable operation with photon energies up to 300 MeV and to develop {gamma}-ray beams with energies up to about 500 MeV. To demonstrate reliable operation, a modest physics program is planned that, for the most part, utilizes existing magnets and detector systems but nonetheless addresses several important outstanding problems. Gamma ray beams of the versatility, intensity, energy, and resolution that can be achieved at this facility are not currently available at any other world facility either existing or under construction. Furthermore, the proposed program would produce the first intense source of medium-energy {gamma} rays that are polarized. Because of the difficulties in producing such polarized beams, it is very unlikely that viable alternate sources can be developed in the near future; at present, no others are planned.