As mentioned above, the HIGS facility will offer high-flux, 100% linearly polarized photon beams. At present, fluxes of ~10⁶ Hz are available, but with a storage-ring RF upgrade next year, it will increase to 10⁸ Hz (and ultimately to 10⁹ Hz). Energies up to 50 MeV are available currently, but the upper limit of ~225 MeV will be reached with the installation of a booster injector in early 2006. A variety of experimental questions can be addressed with a facility of this kind. Recent advances on the theoretical front (both in Compton-scattering studies in effective field theory, as well as few-body systems calculated in an exact Faddeev approach) require new and better data, including polarization observables, to test the limits of the theory. In particular, Compton scattering on the deuteron gives insights into the electromagnetic polarizabilities of the neutron. Low-energy studies of ³He, for example, offer strong sensitivities to the subtle effects of three-nucleon forces. In both of these cases, measurements with linearly polarized photons will help to constrain the extraction of the desired quantities. Other experiments, such as on ⁴He or ⁶Li, will benefit from the high photon flux available at HIGS. In the following sections, we describe experiments of Compton scattering, photodisintegration of few-body nuclei, and photofission, to be carried out at HIGS. These measurements depend on the linear polarization and/or high flux of the photon beam that are particular to the HIGS facility.

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Last modified: 03/31/05