Objectives and Relevance to Program Objectives: This recommended award would support a three-year cooperative research project in nuclear physics between Professors Jochen H. Heisenberg and F. William Hersman, Department of Physics, The University of New Hampshire; and Dr. H.P. Blok, Free University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Dr.P.K.A. de Witt Huberts and others at the Dutch National Institute for Nuclear and High Energy Physics (NIKHEF), also in Amsterdam. The researchers will carry out a program of nuclear structure studies using intermediate energy electrons to probe details of nucleon orbital occupation near the nuclear Fermi surface. Two experimental programs are proposed which are directed at understanding how the individual nucleons in the compound system of the nucleus arrange themselves with respect to their neighbors. Proton knockout from oxygen will determine which orbital shapes are preferred by the nucleons and with what probability, while the measurement of charges and currents looks at the rearrangement of all other protons when one proton is moved from one orbit to another. The Nuclear Physics Group at The University of New Hampshire carries out an active program of electromagnetic nuclear structure experiments at the MIT-Bates Linear Accelerator. The Group plans to extend its program by increasing its interaction with Dutch scientists also active in this field. This will allow them to make use of high resolution spectrometers which are at present unique to the NIKHEF facility. The work to be carried out in cooperation with Dr. Blok, de Witt Huberts, and colleagues at NIKHEF is a related and natural complement to the current investigations of the American researchers. The project thus contributes to an important objective of NSF's cooperative science programs with Western Europe, which is to stimulate scientific progress by bringing together scientists from the U.S. and Europe who have similar research interests and who wish to engage in mutually beneficial research cooperation. Funds from this award would support necessary transportation and subsistence expenses for the U.S. principal investigators. Merit of Proposal: The prospect of a significant contribution to scientific knowledge from this proposed research is very good. The U.S. principal investigators are respected, productive scientists. The foreign researchers with whom they will cooperate in the project are also widely recognized for their expertise in this field. Previous collaboration between the two research groups has been productive, and the likelihood of additional mutual benefit from a continuation of the joint effort is high. The work plan is sound and the budget is reasonable. Funding: This award will not duplicate other funding. The principal investigators receive support for the domestic aspects of this research from the U.S. Department of Energy.
