Polarized protons

Abstract

One of the objectives of nuclear physics is to acquire a better understanding of nuclear forces. The understanding of nuclear forces can be enhanced by investigations of the effects of the nuclear spins of the interacting particles. To make such investigations when protons are interacting with nuclei, one wishes to have available a beam of protons whose spins are oriented in a chosen direction, i.e., a beam of polarized protons. By scattering these protons from nuclei, one can investigate the nature and strength of the spin‐orbit force which is required by most phenomenological theories of the nucleus, particularly the shell model.