Next: Scientific Achievements since Up: QCD in Nuclei Previous: Outlook and Open

QCD and Nuclei

In the mid 1980's, it was discovered that the quark structure of complex nuclei was significantly different from that of nucleons (``EMC effect''). The origin of these effects is still a subject of much study, both experimental and theoretical, and understanding the relation of nuclear binding to the quark-gluon substructure of the nucleon is now an important goal of nuclear physics. In addition, the use of the nuclear medium as a short-distance quantum filter for high momentum transfer hadronic reactions has become of great interest recently. The goal of these studies is to establish properties of hard scattering processes using the nucleus as a means of probing the time development of reaction participants on short distance scales in the laboratory. Much of the recent and future effort is focussed on the concept of ``color transparency,'' where one expects the transparency of the nuclear medium to substantially increase at high momentum transfer.



cardman@cebaf.gov