Probing the repulsive core of the nucleon-nucleon interaction via the He 4 (e,e′pN) triple-coincidence reaction

Abstract

We studied simultaneously the He4(e,e′p), He4(e,e′pp), and He4(e,e′pn) reactions at Q2=2(GeV/c)2 and xB>1, for an (e,e′p) missing-momentum range of 400 to 830MeV/c. The knocked-out proton was detected in coincidence with a proton or neutron recoiling almost back to back to the missing momentum, leaving the residual A=2 system at low excitation energy. These data were used to identify two-nucleon short-range correlated pairs and to deduce their isospin structure as a function of missing momentum, in a region where the nucleon-nucleon (NN) force is expected to change from predominantly tensor to repulsive. The abundance of neutron-proton pairs is reduced as the nucleon momentum increases beyond ∼500MeV/c. The extracted fraction of proton-proton pairs is small and almost independent of the missing momentum. Our data are compared with calculations of two-nucleon momentum distributions in He4 and discussed in the context of probing the elusive repulsive component of the NN force. © 2014 American Physical Society.