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Published: 2002

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There has been a remarkable fruitful evolution of our picture of the behavior of strongly interacting matter during the almost two decades that have passed since the parameters of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at Jefferson Lab were defined. These advances have revealed important new experimental questions best addressed by a CEBAF-class machine at higher energy. Fortunately, favorable technical developments coupled with foresight in the design of the facility make it feasible to triple (double) CEBAF's design (achieved) beam energy from 4 (6) GeV to 12 GeV, in a cost-effective manner: the Upgrade can be realized for about 15% of the cost of the initial facility. This Upgrade would enable the worldwide community to greatly expand its physics horizons. In addition to in general improving the figure of merit and momentum transfer range of the present Jefferson Lab physics program, raising the energy of the accelerator to 12 GeV opens up two main new areas of physics: (1) It allows direct exploration of the quark-gluon structure of hadrons and nuclei in the ''valence quark region''. It is known that inclusive electron scattering at the high momentum and energy transfers available at 12 GeV is governed by elementary interactions with quarks and, indirectly, gluons. The original CEBAF energy is not adequate to study this critical region, while with continuous 12 GeV beams one can cleanly access the entire ''valence quark region'' and exploit the newly discovered Generalized Parton Distributions. In addition, a 12-GeV Jefferson Lab can essentially complete the studies of the transition from hadronic to quark-gluon degrees of freedom. (2) It allows crossing the threshold above which the origins of quark confinement can be investigated. Specifically, 12 GeV will enable the production of certain ''exotic'' mesons. Whereas in the QCD region of asymptotic freedom ample evidence for the role of gluons exist through the observation of gluon jets, direct evidence for the role of gluons in the QCD confinement region is still missing. Spectroscopy of light ''exotic'' mesons, with glue as essential part of their valence structure, would provide such essential evidence. In addition, with 12 GeV one crosses the threshold for charm production. The nearly final draft of the recent NSAC long-range plan states the 12 GeV Upgrade as one of three construction recommendations: ''We strongly recommend the upgrade of CEBAF at Jefferson Laboratory to 12 GeV as soon as possible. The 12 GeV upgrade of the unique CEBAF facility is critical for our continued leadership in the experimental study of hadronic matter.'' Presently, the status of the 12 GeV Upgrade is that the laboratory is waiting for ''CD-0'', a ''Statement of Mission Need'', approval by DOE. Conceptual Design Reports for both accelerator upgrades and the various experimental upgrades (Halls A, B, C, and D) are anticipated by September 15, 2002.