The International Workshop on Polarized Beams and Polarized Gas Targets was held in Cologne, Germany from June 6 to 9, 1995 as the last in a series held at 2-3 years intervals. It was attended by about 110 scientists; there were 47 invited and contributed talks, 5 round-table discussions and 17 poster contributions, all of which will appear as a written contribution in the Proceedings. The main subjects were Optically-Pumped Polarized Targets, Polarized Electron Sources, Atomic-Beam Polarized-Ion Sources, Optically-Pumped Polarized Ion Sources, Targets and Storage Rings. Significant progress and latest developments in this field were covered as well as future developments both from the technical, but also from the physics aspects.

The proceedings presents articles exploring the wide range of physics with can be addressed with measurements using both polarized beams and polarized targets. The conference concentrated on the physics to be done using polarized beams on polarized targets and include selected highlights on advances in the technology. Topics covered include studies of nuclear structure and few-body reactions to test fundamental symmetries, measurements of electromagnetic form factors and of the internal spin structure of nucleons, and tests of QCD.

This book collects the most recent experimental results, new ideas and prototypes in the field of nuclear gaseous and solid polarized targets and polarimetry. It contains the contribution of the biennial meeting on the topics of Polarized Sources, Targets and Polarimetry. Therefore includes the most recent developments and performances in the field and new proposals. The contributing authors are the experts of the field. The topics covered include: Polarized Electron Sources, Polarized Proton and Deuterium Sources, Polarized Internal Targets, Polarized 3He Ion Sources and Targets, Polarimetry (e, p, d) at Low and High Energy, Polarized antiprotons, Polarized Solid Targets.

This volume contains the invited talks and contributed papers presented at the workshop on “Testing QCD Through Spin Observables in Nuclear Targets”, held at the University of Virginia in April 2002.The workshop was proposed in the context of the large number of experiments that have used polarized deuterons or polarized 3He to extract information about the spin parameters of the neutron. The motivation for this workshop was to study the effects of the nuclear medium on the spin properties of the bound nucleon and to explore issues in QCD that might be resolved through spin observables in nuclear targets: What is the effect of the nuclear medium on the measured asymmetries? How have the latest results on the spin structure of the nucleon and the nucleon form factors changed our thinking? What advances are anticipated in the development of polarized targets?

The investigation of hadronic and nuclear probes with protons and electrons in the energy range of a few GeV is of great importance for the understanding of the properties of nucleons and mesons as well as of their interaction. Experimental results from studies with these beams provide the basis for the development and the tests of theoretical approaches in the energy regime of non-perturbative QCD. They can also clarify the effect of the nuclear medium on elementary reactions. The conference has reviewed the present status of this field of research. The topics have beenThe conference topics comprised investigations near energy thresholds in the tradition of the conferences on Particle Production near Threshold in Nashville, IN, USA, 1990, and Uppsala, Sweden, 1992.

Polarized beams and targets have been irreplaceable tools in nuclear and particle physics experiments for a long time and have provided us rich information on the role played by spin-degrees of freedom in the sub-nuclear world. In addition, techniques to obtain large nuclear polarization have recently been applied to new fields such as materials and medical sciences.The scope of these proceedings covers recent progress of state-of-the-art techniques in spin polarization, the cryogenic method, the atomic beam method, the optical pumping method and the nuclear reaction method.