  A large reduction of the rho^0 mass in the nuclear medium is reported,
inferred from dipion photoproduction spectra in the 1 GeV region, for the
reaction 3He(gamma,pi+ pi-)X with a 10% duty factor tagged-photon beam and the
TAGX multi-particle spectrometer. The energy range covered (800 < E(gamma) <
1120 MeV) lies mostly below the free rho^0 production threshold, a region which
is believed sensitive to modifications of light vector-meson properties at
nuclear-matter densities. The rho^0 masses extracted from the MC fitting of the
data, m*(rho^0) = 642 +/- 40, 669 +/- 32, and 682 +/- 56 MeV/c^2 for E(gamma)
in the 800-880, 880-960, and 960-1040 MeV regions respectively, are
independently corroborated by a measured, assumption-free, kinematical
observable. This mass shift, far exceeding current mean-field driven
theoretical predictions, may be suggestive of rho^0 decay within the range of
the nucleonic field.
