Electroproduction of strange nuclei

The advent of high-energy, CW-beams of electrons now allows electro-production and precision studies of nuclei containing hyperons. Previously, the injection of strangeness into a nucleus was accomplished using secondary beams of mesons, where beam quality and target thickness limited the missing mass resolution. We review here the theoretical description of the (e, e'K+) reaction mechanism, and discuss the first experiment demonstrating that this reaction can be used to precisely study the spectra of light hypernuclei. Future experiments based on similar techniques, are expected to attain even better resolutions and rates. (author)