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........ published in NEWSLETTER # 54

PERSPECTIVES IN THE STRUCTURE OF HADRONIC SYSTEMS
by Professor M.N. Harakeh, and Dr. O. Scholten, KVI, Groningen (The Netherlands), and Professor J.H. Koch, NIKHEF_K, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

The last decade has witnessed many exciting and rapid developments in the fields of nuclear physics and intermediate energy physics, the interface between nuclear and elementary particle physics. These developments involved to a large extent the subnucleonic degrees of freedom in nuclei. In deep inelastic lepton scattering from nuclei it was observed that the quark structure of the nucleon is influenced by the nuclear medium and that its spin_dependent structure function differs from sum rules based on SU(3) symmetry. In pion electroproduction at threshold and in the production of pions and other mesons in heavy_ion collisions at intermediate energies, interesting experimental results have been obtained. Another topic of much current interest is the search for the quark_gluon plasma phase of hadronic matter; a phase that is supposed to have existed in the first few seconds of the Big Bang. This is pursued in ultra_relativistic heavy_ion collisions.

All of the afore mentioned developments occur at a high pace, making it difficult to incorporate them into the courses offered to advanced students. The Dronten Summer School, a NATO Advanced Study Institute, therefore provided courses for young scientists (graduate students and postdocs) by experts in these research activities. This ASI volume (NATO ASI SERIES B333) contains the proceedings of the lectures given during the Summer School. The lectures focussed on several topics. The hadronic (sub) structure was addressed starting at low energies with meson production and nucleon resonance excitation in lepton and hadron scattering from nucleons and nuclei. The high energy muon scattering results of the NMC/SMC collaboration were discussed in connection with the quark and gluon content of the nucleon and its spin structure. Finally, the quest for the quark_gluon plasma in ultra_ relativistic heavy_ion collisions was covered.

The lectures do not only deal with advances made up till now both experimentally and theoretically, but also discuss in detail some of the planned experiments with new facilities to study some specific aspects of the hadronic structure. The aim of the school was to provide material on these topics of much current interest at an accessible level to advanced graduate students and postdocs. Its significance is the coherence of the lectures and their didactic qualities.
Reference books: B197, B205, B209, B228, B333, B334, B335

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