Experiments with polarized 3He at MAMI

Abstract

Experiments with polarized 3He at MAMI have already a long tradition. The A3 collaboration started in 1993 with the aim to measure the electric form factor of the neutron. At this time MAMI was the second accelerator where experiments with 3He were possible. Some years before this pilot experiment the development of the apparatus to polarize 3He in Mainz started. There are two techniques which allow to polarize sufficient large quantities of 3He. Both techniques will be compared and the benefit of 3He for nuclear physics will be discussed. An review of the experiments done so far with 3He at MAMI will be given and the progress in the target development, the detector setup and the electron beam performance will be pointed out.