Köln 2004 – scientific programme

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PV: Plenarvorträge

PV XXI

PV XXI: Plenary Talk

Thursday, March 11, 2004, 12:00–12:30, P

Polarization Experiments in Storage Rings — •Frank Rathmann — IKP, FZJ, Germany

Polarized beams in storage rings orbiting through polarized internal targets offer new experimental possibilities. The talk will give an overview about ongoing research and future trends. The physics outcome of these experiments covers a wide range from deep inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering to measurements of spin observables in elastic and inelastic proton-proton collisions. Even atomic physics experiments have been carried out to investigate polarization effects in recombined hydrogen and deuterium molecules. The experiments greatly benefit from the high purity of the target materials and from the high degree of polarization. Fast polarization reversal eliminates systematic asymmetries to a high degree. Furthermore, the low target thickness turns out to be actually a benefit, because neither the beam lifetime nor the beam momentum are altered by the thin targets. Storage ring experiments should thus be regarded as an ideal tool for high precision experiments. They have just begun to open a new door to hadronic interaction studies and will continue to play a major role in years to come.