Invited Paper-Los Alamos Meson Factory: Present Status and Fuiure Plans

This paper describes briefly the present status and future plans of the work at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory on a meson factory project. At the time of writing, some 40 scientists and engineers are engaged in research and development activities for this project. The primary emphasis at present is on the linear accelerator which will generate the proton beam for meson production; in the future, this emphasis will shift to research activities connected with the use of the accelerator as a tool of experimental physics. More detailed descriptions of this work can be found in the quarterly progress reports (LA-3419-MS and following reports). The first section of the paper contains a general description of the accelerator; the following sections give somewhat more detailed descriptions of particular research and development activities.