Date of Award

Spring 2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Physics

Committee Director

Lawrence Weinstein

Committee Member

Sebastian Kuhn

Committee Member

Matt Grau

Committee Member

Yaohang Li

Committee Member

Alex Gnech

Abstract

Short-Range Correlations (SRCs) refers to pairs of nucleons that are temporary high density fluctuations with high relative momenta and lower center-of-mass momenta com pared to the nuclear Fermi momentum (kF). SRCs account for 20–25% of the nucleons in medium to heavy nuclei, make up essentially all nucleons with momentum greater than kF, and contribute most of the kinetic energy carried by nucleons in nuclei.

The existing semi-inclusive and exclusive measurements only cover a handful of light nu clei or heavy elements. This does not allow for a systematic study of the dependence of SRC pairs on nuclear mass and proton-neutron asymmetry. It also does not allow for insights into SRC pairing mechanisms. Therefore, we systematically studied the individual probabilities for finding SRC protons in symmetric and neutron-rich asymmetric nuclei d, 9Be, 10B, 11B, 12C, 40Ca, 48Ca, 54Fe, and 197Au. We measured the (e,e′p) reaction in kinematics dominated by scattering off mean-field nucleons (k ≤ kF) and nucleons in SRC pairs (k ≥ kF) at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) in Hall C of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) in the Fall of 2022.

The measured results were used to determine the SRC pairing probabilities for protons to examine how pairing depends on nuclear mass, proton-neutron asymmetry, and nuclear shell structure. The extracted cross-section ratios were also compared to theoretical calculations.

We found that SRC pair formation depends more on the nuclear shell structure with sharp increases locally within the general trend of a slower increase with larger A. We also found that intra-shell pairing has a much larger influence than inter-shell pairing. Comparisons to theory suggest that angular momentum selection rules are important to SRC pair formation and can provide new constraints for new theoretical models.

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ISBN

9798197810533

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