Nuclear excitations and reaction mechanisms

The main theme of this report is the study and interpretation of the sequence of events that occur during the collisions of nuclear particles. Some of the processes discussed in parts A and B involve short range interactions; others involve interactions of long range. In most of part A one of the particles in the initial or in the final state (or in both) is a photon, which serves as a probe of the second particle, which may be a nucleus, a proton, a pion or any other hadron. The complexity of the processes taking place during the collisions makes it necessary to simplify some aspects of the physical problem. This leads to the introduction of models which are used to describe a limited number of features in as much detail as possible. The main interest is in understanding the hadronic excitations which result from the absorption of a photon and the determination of the fundamental structure constants of the target particle. In part B, all the particles are hadrons. The purpose here is to develop and apply optimal quantal methods appropriate for describing the interacting systems. Of particular interest are three-particle collision systems in which the final state consists of three free particles. Part B also considers the process of nuclear fusion as catalyzed by bound muons