PREFACE

The field of nuclear orientation has grown and matured in the past decade to the extent that it is regarded as a significant sub-discipline of physics, encompassing basic and applied research in nuclear, solid state, atomic, and low-temperature physics. The interdisciplinary nature of the field makes it particularly important and beneficial for its practitioners to gather together to exchange ideas and evaluate progress. The advent of on-line facilities has taken the technology to its limits and increased the need for such meetings. The Second International Conference on On-Line Nuclear Orientation (OLNO2) continues the exciting tradition that began with the first in this series of conferences, OLNO-1, held at Oxford University in 1988. Previously, topical meetings had been held in Oxford in 1976, in Bad H o n n e f in 1980, and in Leuven in 1984. This volume is the third published proceedings of these meetings; previous volumes contained the proceedings of the Leuven meeting and of OLNO-1 [1, 21. The tradition of these conferences is to take the broadest possible view of the discipline by inviting distinguished speakers whose expertise is in areas related to nuclear orientation. Thus we are pleased that these proceedings include papers in such related areas as the theory of nuclear structure and nuclear moments, violations of parity and other symmetries, nuclear magnetic resonance, and laser spectroscopy. We are also pleased to note a great diversity in the subject matter of the contributed papers, ranging from basic studies in nuclear physics to cryogenic technology. While the number of participants at OLNO-2 and the number of papers in these proceedings are about the same as those of OLNO1, it is important to note that the number of contributed papers specifically describing OLNO experiments has roughly doubled in this volume relative to the previous one. Taken together, the papers in this volume provide a summary of the state of the art as of October 1991. We are grateful to the participants in this conference for their contributions to this volume and for their lively and interesting contributions to the papers presented orally at the conference. Indeed, these discussions offer a dimension to the conference that cannot be captured in the proceedings and that enriches the experience of all the conference participants. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the help of the Program Committee in selecting the invited speakers and in establishing the program and format of the conference. The suggestions and advice of the International Advisory Committee were most helpful in settling the details of the conference, and their help is warmly and thankfully acknowledged. The Local Organizing Committee, in particular Dr. H.K. Carter, deserves special thanks for a superb job of hosting the conference

and for overseeing the logistical arrangements. The setting of the Joint Institute for H e a v y Ion Research provided a most attractive venue for our meetings. The smooth operation of the conference would not have been possible without the administrative and clerical support of Janice Grindstaff, Paula Krane, and Jackie Smith, whose assistance is acknowledged with deep gratitude. Financial support for the conference was generously provided by the Joint Institute for H e a v y Ion Research and by U N I S O R . It is hoped that the success of this conference will stimulate the organization of O L N O - 3 in the near future.

K.A. Krane

[1] B.I. Deutch and L. Vanneste (eds.), Proceedings of the International Symposium on Nuclear Orientation and Nuclei far from Stability, Hyp. Int. 22 (1985). [2] N.J. Stone and J. Rikovska (eds.), Proceedings of the First International Conference on OnLine Nuclear Orientation, Hyp. Int. 43 (1988).