This volume contains the proceedings of the IX International Conference on Hypernuclear and Strange Particle Physics (HYP 2006). This conference series is devoted to the progress of our knowledge about strangeness flavor in hadron and nuclear physics. Besides the traditional topics such as hadron structure, hypernuclear spectroscopy and weak decay of hypernuclei, a particular focus of this conference was on the properties of strange mesons and their binding in nuclear systems.
This volume comprises an important collection of papers dedicated to the problems of producing and investigating nuclei far from the line of stability. Together, they discuss the latest results on the production and study of the properties of the lightest to the heaviest nuclei as well as the current plans for future joint investigations in the field of exotic nuclei.The contributions from well-known experts in the field were presented at the International Symposium on Exotic Nuclei, jointly organized by four scientific centers where this field is actively pursued: Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions JINR (Dubna), RIKEN (Japan), GANIL (France), and GSI (Germany).Unique techniques for the synthesis and investigation of the properties of exotic nuclei are being developed together with the realization of large accelerator projects. The creation of these new radioactive ion beam factories requires substantial investment, and they can only be built with the support of international collaborations.
One of the main goals of intermediate energy nuclear physics, which serves an important role as a bridge between nuclear and particle physics, is to construct the theory of strong interaction phenomena in terms of conventional degrees of freedom (nucleons, deltas and mesons) as well as of quark degrees of freedom.The main topics to be discussed at this conference are the interaction of pions and other mesons with nuclei at intermediate energies and the role of mesonic degrees of freedom in nuclear reactions, including photon, hadron and heavy ion induced reactions. Both theoretical and experimental results will be included.Over the past two decades, the Meson Factories, including LAMPF, TRIUMF, and PSI, have provided us with systematic experimental information on hadron-hadron and hadron-nucleus dynamics. Major accelerators of JINR are also suitable for studying problems in Intermediate Energy Nuclear Physics. At the present time, first experiments have been performed with the proton beams at the Moscow Meson Factory of INR. One of the purposes of this conference is to introduce the intermediate-energy physics community to the possibility of utilizing the facilities of JINR and INR during the next decade.
