A series of measurements have been performed at KVI to obtain the vector analyzing power A(y) of the (2)H(p-->,pd) reaction as a function of incident beam energy at energies of 120, 135, 150, and 170 MeV. For all these measurements, a range of theta(c.m.) from 30 degrees to 170 degrees has been covered. The purpose of these investigations is to observe possible spin-dependent effects beyond two-nucleon forces. When compared to the predictions of Faddeev calculations, based on two-nucleon forces only, significant deviations are observed at all energies and at center-of-mass angles between 70 degrees and 130 degrees. The addition of present-day three-nucleon forces does not improve the description of the data, demonstrating the still insufficient understanding of the properties of three-nucleon systems.

The question, whether the high-quality nucleon-nucleon potentials can successfully describe the three-nucleon system, and to what extent three-nucleon forces (3N Fs) play a role, has become very important in nuclear few-body physics. One kinematic region where effects because of 3N Fs show up is in the minimum of the differential cross section of elastic nucleon-deuteron scattering. Another observable, which could give an indication about the contribution of the spin to 3N Fs, is the vector analyzing power. To investigate the importance of 3N Fs systematically over a broad range of intermediate energies, both observables of elastic proton-deuteron scattering have been measured at proton bombarding energies of 108, 120, 135, 150, 170, and 190 MeV, covering an angular range in the center-of-mass system between 30 • and 170 •. The results show unambiguously the shortcomings of calculations employing only two-body forces and the necessity of the inclusion of 3N Fs. They also show the limitations of the results of the present day models for few-nucleon systems at backward angles, especially at higher beam energies. New calculations based on chiral perturbation theory are also presented and compared with the data at the lowest energy.

Precision data are presented for the break-up reaction, 2 H( p, pp)n, within the framework of nuclear-force studies. The experiment was carried out at KVI using a polarized-proton beam of 190 MeV impinging on a liquid-deuterium target and by exploiting the detector, BINA. Some of the vector-analyzing powers are presented and compared with state-of-the-art Faddeev calculations including three-nucleon forces effect. Significant discrepancies between the data and theoretical predictions were observed for kinematical configurations which correspond to the 2 H( p, 2 He)n channel. These results are compared to the 2 H( p, d)p reaction to test the isospin sensitivity of the present three-nucleon force models. The current modeling of two and three-nucleon forces is not sufficient to describe consistently polarization data for both isospin states. Understanding the exact nature of the nuclear force is one of the long-standing questions in nuclear physics. In 1935, Yukawa successfully described the pair-wise nucleon-nucleon (NN) interaction as an exchange of a boson [1]. Current NN models are mainly based on Yukawa's idea and provide an excellent description of the high-quality database of proton-proton and neutron-proton scattering [2] and of the properties of the deuteron. However, for the simplest three-nucleon system, triton, three-body calculations employing NN forces clearly underestimate the experimental binding energies [3], demonstrating that NN forces are not sufficient to describe the three-nucleon system accurately. Some of the discrepancies between experimental data and calculations solely based on the NN interaction can be resolved by introducing an additional three-nucleon force (3NF). Most of the current models for the 3NF are based on a refined version of Fujita-Miyazawa's 3NF model [4], in which a 2π-exchange mechanism is incorporated by an intermediate ∆ excitation of one of the nucleons [5,6].The structure of the 3NF can be studied via a measurement of observables in three-nucleon scattering processes. More detailed information on the spin dependence of the 3NF can be obtained by measuring polarization observables such as the analyzing powers. For this, a series of * Electronic address: messchendorp@kvi.nl extensive studies of 3NF effects in elastic-scattering reactions have been performed at KVI and other laboratories. Precision measurements of the vector analyzing power of the proton in elastic proton-deuteron scattering have been performed at various beam energies ranging from 90 to 250 MeV [7,8,9,10,11]. Also, vector and tensor analyzing powers in elastic deuteron-proton scattering have been obtained at various beam energies ranging from 75 to 270 MeV [12,13,14,15,16,17]. In these measurements, systematic discrepancies between data and theoretical predictions which rigorously solve the Faddeev equations and using only NN potentials were observed. A large part of the discrepancies were removed by adding a 3NF to the NN potentials. Nevertheless, there are still unresolved problems specially at higher...

High-precision data for vector and tensor analyzing powers for the 1 H( d,pp)n reaction at a 130-MeV deuteron beam energy have been measured over a large part of the phase space. Theoretical predictions based on various approaches to describe the three nucleon (3N ) system reproduce very well the vector analyzing power data and no three-nucleon force effect is observed for these observables. Tensor analyzing powers are also very well reproduced by calculations in almost the whole studied region, but locally certain discrepancies are observed. For A xy such discrepancies usually appear, or are enhanced, when model 3N forces, TM99 or Urbana, are included. Problems of all theoretical approaches with describing A xx and A yy are limited to very small kinematical regions, usually characterized by the lowest energy of the relative motion of the two protons.