The Second Workshop on Electronuclear Physics with Internal Targets and the Bates Large Acceptance Spectrometer Toroid (BLAST) took place at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in May 1998. A total of 75 physicists from 26 institutions located in seven countries participated in a lively meeting focused on the unique and important advantages of polarized gas targets internal to an electron storage ring in the study of hadron structure. This meeting has reaffirmed the contributions that BLAST will make in the area of few-body physics.The BLAST detector is designed to measure the spin-dependent electromagnetic response of light nuclei in the momentum transfer range up to 0.8 (GeV/c)2. It will use the 1 GeV longitudinally polarized beam of the Bates South Hall Ring and polarized internal targets. BLAST is scheduled to be completed in 2001.

The workshop on Electronuclear Physics with Internal Targets brought together many experimentalists and theories in the field of electronuclear physics to discuss the next generation of experiments in this area. In line with the forward-looking theme of the workshop, the discussions centred on the many exciting new opportunities using polarized targets and the coincidental detection of electrons, pions and nucleons. With the upgrade to the MIT/Bates laboratory almost completed and the proposal for a large acceptance detector (BLAST) under review, these discussions can be said to be timely and appropriate.

This comprehensive volume covers the most recent advances in the field of spin physics, including the latest research in high energy and nuclear physics and the study of nuclear spin structure. The comprehensive coverage also includes polarized proton and electron acceleration and storage as well as polarized ion sources and targets. Many significant new results and achievements on the different topics considered at the symposium are presented in this book for the first time.

This volume describes the latest developments in the design, construction and operation of cyclotrons, from compact machines producing intense beams for isotope production, cancer therapy and industrial use, to the larger versions giving higher energy beams of ions of various elements for nuclear and particle physics. Important topics include ECR ion sources, superconducting magnets and radiofrequency cavities, beam dynamics and diagnostics, beam cooling rings, control systems and various medical and industrial applications.

A series of new and relevant experimental results are here presented to the community for the first time. In particular, we refer to the measurement of the neutron spin structure functions by the SLAC (E142) and CERN (SMC) collaborations; the first results from MAMI on experiments with tagged photons (A1 collaboration), on electroproduction of multi-hadron final states (A2 collaboration) and the neutron form factor (A3 collaboration); the experiments on strangeness photoproduction at ELSA; the polarization experiments at Bates on the neutron form factor and nuclear response functions and the photon and electron scattering data obtained by the Genova-Frascati Jet Target collaboration.Focused on the study of spin observables and exclusive processes at high momenta, the following sessions were held: The Neutron Form Factors; Spin Structure Functions; Exclusive Processes at High υ and Q2. Deep Inelastic Scattering; Spin Observables; One- and Two-Nucleon Knockout at Low and Intermediate Energies; Excitation of Baryons Resonances and Strangeness.