This award provides funds to permit Dr. Kongki Min, Department of Physics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, to pursue with Dr. Jong Chan Kim, Department of Physics, Seoul National University, for 24 months, a program of cooperative research in medium energy physics. These scientists and members of their research groups will collaborate in a study of photopion reactions in light nuclei, using quasi-monoenergetic photons (gamma rays). Two experiments will be undertaken. The first is directed toward understanding the spin-isospin mode nuclear excitations in A=12 and A=13 systems and their similarities, while the second experiment will elucidate the reaction mechanism of the photopion production process, especially the effect of delta dynamics in nuclei. These experiments will be conducted at the Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory, University of Saskatchewan, a unique research facility in Canada which has allocated nearly 700 hours of beam time for this research. The proposed research should provide valuable information on the structure of atomic nuclei and nuclear reaction mechanisms. The U.S. and Korean collaborators are highly respected scientists with proven ability in this field. They have collaborated successfully in related research under NSF Grant No. INT-8819820. The present project will add an international cooperative dimension to Dr. Min's research under NSF Grant No. PHY-8905162 and will allow the collaborators to combine their talents and interests for mutual benefit. This project is relevant to the objectives of the U.S.-Korea Cooperative Science Program which seeks to increase the level of cooperation between U.S. and Korean scientists and engineers through the exchange of scientific information, ideas, skills, and techniques and through collaboration on problems of mutual benefit. Korean participation in the project is supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF).
