Annual report of nuclear physics group

The experimental programme on weak interaction phenomena continued. A great deal of effort was expended in attempting to understand a discrepancy of 7 kev between determinations of the 42Ca - 42Sc mass difference using the (p,n) and (3He,t) reactions. Great care was taken to reduce the background in the measurement of the apparent (p,n) threshold. This however did not reduce the discrepancy. It is possible that the effective threshold does not accurately reflect the 42Ca - 42Sc mass difference, nevertheless the Q-value as determined by the (3He,t) reaction should be remeasured as well. The activities of the Polarized Ion Source group were concentrated on measurements of the proton polarization in the 3He(d,p)4He reaction, an analysis of data previously obtained using the polarized ion source and on a modest upgrading of the polarized ion source facility. In nuclear spectroscopy the only experimental work undertaken was aimed at elucidating some problems encountered in the analysis of Doppler shift data previously obtained for the nuclei 41Ar and 41K. Analysis of this data and of data on 46Sc, 44Ti, 54Mn and 51Cr was undertaken through the year