Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Search For Three-Nucleon Short-Range Correlations In Light Nuclei, Z. Ye, P. Solvignon, D. Nguten, P. Aguilera, Z. Ahmed, H. Albataineh, K. Allada, B. Anderson, D. Anez, L. B. Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

We present new data probing short-range correlations (SRCs) in nuclei through the measurement of electron scattering off high-momentum nucleons in nuclei. The inclusive ⁴He/³He cross section ratio is observed to be both x and Q² independent for 1.5 < x < 2, confirming the dominance of two-nucleon short-range correlations. For x > 2, our data support the hypothesis that a previous claim of three-nucleon correlation dominance was an artifact caused by the limited resolution of the measurement. While 3N-SRCs appear to have an important contribution, our data show that isolating 3N-SRCs is significantly more complicated than for 2N-SRCs.