This book covers the structure and dynamics of atomic nuclei in terms of nucleons, pions, and quarks, all within a unified treatment of the nuclear response to an electromagnetic probe. The basic formalism is presented to describe the electromagnetic field and its interaction with nuclear matter for both real and virtual photons. Nuclear response is then analyzed in terms of structure functions in the case of inclusive and semi-inclusive inelastic electron scattering. The discussion covers pion production and one- or two-nucleon emission and compares the results with available data. The formalism is also extended to incident polarized electrons, polarized targets and nuclear recoil polarization. It contains a comprehensive description of photonuclear reactions at intermediate energies and a review of experimental data and previous theoretical approaches.

This talk is devoted to a brief review of the experimental program for the new generation of multi GeV continuous beam electron accelerator facilities. First, the kinematic variables used in electron scattering are reviewed, three experiments which are representative of previous work in this field are described, and some comparisons are made between electron and hadronic probes. The main part of the talk then describes seven experiemnts proposed for the future. These are concerned with the structure of light nuclei, the structure of mesons, and baryons, the influence of the nuclear medium on hadronic interaction, and the weak interactions.

Nuclear physics is presently experiencing a thrust towards fundamental phy sics questions. Low-energy experiments help in testing beyond today's stan dard models of particle physics. The search for finite neutrino masses and neutrino oscillations, for proton decay, rare and forbidden muon and pion de cays, for an electric dipole moment of the neutron denote some of the efforts to test today's theories of grand unification (GUTs, SUSYs, Superstrings, ... ) complementary to the search for new particles and symmetries in high-energy experiments. The close connections between the laws of microphysics, astrophysics and cosmology open further perspectives. This concerns, to mention some of them, properties of exotic nuclei and nuclear matter, and star evolution; the neutrino and the dark matter in the universe; relations between grand unification and evolution of the early universe. The International Symposium on Weak and Electromagnetic Interactions in Nuclei (W.E.LN. 1986)' held in Heidelberg 1-5 July 1986, in conjunction with the 600th anniversary of the University of Heidelberg, brought together experts in the fields of nuclear and particle physics, astrophysics and cosmol ogy.

Electromagnetic Response Functions of Nuclei