Spin-dependent scattering of polarized protons from a polarized 3He internal gas target

Abstract

We describe the first experiment to use a polarized internal gas target and polarized beam in a storage ring. A laser optically pumped polarized 3He internal gas target has been used with circulating beams of 197–414 MeV polarized protons to carry out an extensive set of measurements of spin dependent scattering. A large acceptance non-magnetic detector system consisting of wire-chambers, scintillators and microstrip detectors was used to detect protons, neutrons, deuterons, and 3He nuclei from the beam-target interaction. It is demonstrated that these techniques result in low backgrounds (< 1%) due to scattering from species other than the polarized target gas and allow detection of low energy recoiling nuclei. Specific issues such as interfacing the experiment to the storage ring and monitoring the luminosity and polarizations are discussed in detail.