This standard grant will furnish partial support to construct a facility to provide linearly polarized photons at Jefferson National Laboratory. Together with other equipment already in place or committed, it will permit studies of spin-dependent properties of the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and protons and neutrons. Polarized radiation (of which laser light is an example) has electric and magnetic components whose direction is selected in the polarization process, and this allows one to study the distribution of charges and currents inside protons and neutrons in a more precise manner than with unpolarized radiation. The Jefferson Laboratory experimental program is of high priority within US nuclear science, as established by the joint NSF/DOE Nuclear Science Advisory Committee in its 1996 Long Range Plan, and a polarized photon source represents a significant enhancement of the laboratory's capability. Education of students and postdocs is a strong component of the Jefferson Laboratory experimental program. This action is supported by the NSF Major Research Instrumentation Program.
