The instrumentation in Hall A at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility was designed to study electro-and photo-induced reactions at very high luminosity and good momentum and angular resolution for at least one of the reaction products. The central components of Hall A are two identical high resolution spectrometers, which allow the vertical drift chambers in the focal plane to provide a momentum resolution of better than 2 x 10(-4). A variety of Cherenkov counters, scintillators and lead-glass calorimeters provide excellent particle identification. The facility has been operated successfully at a luminosity well in excess of 10(38) CM-2 s(-1). The research program is aimed at a variety of subjects, including nucleon structure functions, nucleon form factors and properties of the nuclear medium. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

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We report on the first measurement of spin-correlation parameters in quasifree electron scattering from vector-polarized deuterium. Polarized electrons were injected into an electron storage ring at a beam energy of 720 MeV. A Siberian snake was employed to preserve longitudinal polarization at the interaction point. Vector-polarized deuterium was produced by an atomic beam source and injected into an open-ended cylindrical cell, internal to the electron storage ring. The spin correlation parameter A V ed was measured for the reaction 2 H͑e, e 0 n͒ p at a four-momentum transfer squared of 0.21 ͑GeV͞c͒ 2 from which a value for the charge form factor of the neutron was extracted. [S0031-9007(99)09392-8] PACS numbers: 13.40. Gp, 14.20.Dh, 24.70. + s, 25.30.Fj Although the neutron has no net electric charge, it does have a charge distribution. Precise measurements [1] where thermal neutrons from a nuclear reactor are scattered from atomic electrons indicate that the neutron has a positive core surrounded by a region of negative charge. The actual distribution is described by the charge form factor G n E , which enters the cross section for elastic electron scattering. It is related to the Fourier transform of the charge distribution and is generally expressed as a function of Q 2 , the square of the four-momentum transfer. Data on G n E are important for our understanding of the nucleon and are essential for the interpretation of electromagnetic multipoles of nuclei, e.g., the deuteron.Since a practical target of free neutrons is not available, experimentalists mostly resorted to (quasi)elastic scattering of electrons from unpolarized deuterium [2,3] to determine this form factor. The shape of G n E as a function of Q 2 is relatively well known from high precision elastic electron-deuteron scattering [3]. However, in this case the cross section is dominated by scattering from the proton and, moreover, is sensitive to nuclear-structure uncertainties and reaction-mechanism effects. Consequently, the absolute scale of G n E still contains a systematic uncertainty of about 50%.Many of the aforementioned uncertainties can be significantly reduced through the measurement of electronuclear spin observables. The scattering cross section with both longitudinal polarized electrons and a polarized target for the 2 H͑e, e 0 N͒ reaction, can be written as [4]where S 0 is the unpolarized cross section, h the polarization of the electrons, and P d 1 (P d 2 ) the vector (tensor) polarization of the target. A e is the beam analyzing power, A V ͞T d the vector and tensor analyzing powers, and A V ͞T ed the vector and tensor spin-correlation parameters. The target analyzing powers and spin-correlation parameters depend on the orientation of the target spin. The polarization direction of the deuteron is defined by the angles Q d and F d in the frame where the z axis is along the direction of the three-momentum transfer (q) and the y axis is defined by the vector product of the incoming and outgoing electron momenta. A V ed ͑Q d 90 ±...

The ratio of the proton elastic electromagnetic form factors, GEp/GMp, was obtained by measuring Pt and P ℓ , the transverse and longitudinal recoil proton polarization components, respectively, for the elastic ep → e p reaction in the four-momentum transfer squared range of 0.5 to 3.5 GeV 2 . In the single-photon exchange approximation, the ratio GEp/GMp is directly proportional to the ratio Pt/P ℓ . The simultaneous measurement of Pt and P ℓ in a polarimeter reduces systematic uncertainties. The results for the ratio GEp/GMp show a systematic decrease with increasing Q 2 , indicating for the first time a definite difference in the distribution of charge and magnetization in the proton. The data have been re-analyzed and systematic uncertainties have become significantly smaller than previously published results.

We report the first results of the beam-spin asymmetry measured in the reaction e⃗p→epγ at a beam energy of 4.25 GeV. A large asymmetry with a sinφ modulation is observed, as predicted for the interference term of deeply virtual compton scattering (DVCS) and the Bethe-Heitler process. The amplitude of this modulation is α = 0.202±0.028. In leading-order and leading-twist perturbative QCD, the α is directly proportional to the imaginary part of the DVCS amplitude

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The ratios of inclusive electron scattering cross sections of 4 He, 12 C, and 56 Fe to 3 He have been measured for the first time. It is shown that these ratios are independent of x B at Q 2 Ͼ1.4 GeV 2 for x B Ͼ1.5, where the inclusive cross section depends primarily on the high momentum components of the nuclear wave function. The observed scaling shows that the momentum distributions at high-momenta have the same shape for all nuclei and differ only by a scale factor. The observed onset of the scaling at Q 2 Ͼ1.4 GeV 2 and x B Ͼ1.5 is consistent with the kinematical expectation that two-nucleon short range correlations ͑SRC͒ dominate the nuclear wave function at p m տ300 MeV/c. The values of these ratios in the scaling region can be related to the relative probabilities of SRC in nuclei with Aу3. Our data, combined with calculations and other measurements of the 3 He/deuterium ratio, demonstrate that for nuclei with Aу12 these probabilities are 4.9-5.9 times larger than in deuterium, while for 4 He it is larger by a factor of about 3.8.