The photonuclear physics group at James Madison University is engaged in a program of Compton scattering and meson production located at the Laser Electron Gamma Source (LEGS) at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), and the High Intensity Gamma Source (HIGS) facility at the Duke Free Electron Laser Laboratory (DFELL) laboratory at Duke University (DU). The work at both facilities is focused on polarized photon beams and targets. At LEGS, the experiments will use a polarized HD target especially constructed for this program. Polarized targets are being developed for the program at the HIGS facility at the University of Virginia (UVA), DU and JMU. These include several polarized targets, including the polarizable scintillator target using material fabricated at JMU.
The LEGS effort focuses on the distillation of high purity HD for target production and the participation in the final phase of data collection. The HIGS effort is concentrated on the fabrication of polarizable scintillator targets and the construction of a detector assembly and testing laboratory. This lab will be equiped using JMU money and will permit NaI detector assembly and testing for HIGS. All the students are involved in distillery operation. This provides them with an opportunity that is unique at JMU. This is the only cryogenic laboratory of any kind on campus. In addition, this distillery is unique in the world making this facility on the JMU campus a critical component for the LEGS program and an ideal learning situation for our students. The HIGS NaI detector testing lab will serve as a starting point for the development of a nuclear physics lab course to complement the existing lecture introduced by the PI and will allow extension of a new department outreach program to include nuclear physics. The preparation of polarizable target materials at JMU is generating a closer connection with the material science group here. This builds connections among the students in different research groups and connections among the faculty.
