From Desire to Data: How JLab’s Experimental Program Evolved

This is the first in a three-part article describing the development of the experimental program at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, from the first dreams of incisive electromagnetic probes into the structure of the nucleus through the era in which equipment was designed and constructed and a program crafted so that the long-desired experiments could begin. Part 1, which is presented here, focuses on how the scientific and technical work of previous decades inspired physicists in the 1970s to develop and launch plans for the necessary accelerators and experimental equipment for such probes. This effort required devising an initial wish list of experiments and working with the Department of Energy (DOE) and expert advisory committees to choose the best accelerator plan so that a laboratory design report could be produced in 1986. DOE approval of this report then opened the way for the construction of a 4?GeV continuous wave, superconducting radiofrequency accelerator at a new laboratory in Newport News, Virginia. Along the way those struggling to make experimental dreams come true faced many challenges, including the rise of the more bureaucratic New Big Science and the intellectual revolution that resulted from new understanding about quark-level physics.