Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2018

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.092501

Publication Title

Physical Review Letters

Volume

121

Issue

9

Pages

092501 (7 pages)

Abstract

Short-range correlated (SRC) nucleon pairs are a vital part of the nucleus, accounting for almost all nucleons with momentum greater than the Fermi momentum (kF). A fundamental characteristic of SRC pairs is having large relative momenta as compared to kF, and smaller center of mass (c.m.) which indicates a small separation distance between the nucleons in the pair. Determining the c.m. momentum distribution of SRC pairs is essential for understanding their formation process. We report here on the extraction of the c.m. motion of proton-proton (pp) SRC pairs in carbon and, for the first time in heavier and ansymetric nuclei: aluminum, iron, and lead, from measurements of the A(e,e′pp) reaction. We find that the pair c.m. motion for these nuclei can be described by a three-dimensional Gaussian with a narrow width ranging from 140 to 170  MeV/c , approximately consistent with the sum of two mean-field nucleon momenta. Comparison with calculations appears to show that the SRC pairs are formed from mean-field nucleons in specific quantum states.

Comments

Article is open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license.

© American Physical Society

Original Publication Citation

Collaboration, C., Cohen, E. O., Hen, O., Piasetzky, E., Weinstein, L. B., Duer, M., . . . Zhao, Z. W. (2018). Center of mass motion of short-range correlated nucleon pairs studied via the a(e, e'pp) reaction. Physical Review Letters, 121(9), 092501. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.092501

ORCID

0000-0001-5416-2900 (Weinstein), 0000-0003-2243-6836 (Kuhn)

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