Sangam: A Confluence of Knowledge Streams

Two-nucleon short-range correlations in light nuclei

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dc.contributor Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics.
dc.contributor Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
dc.creator Cruz Torres, Reynier.
dc.date 2022-10-12T14:59:28Z
dc.date 2022-10-12T14:59:28Z
dc.date 2020
dc.date 2020
dc.date.accessioned 2023-03-01T07:22:04Z
dc.date.available 2023-03-01T07:22:04Z
dc.identifier https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/145795
dc.identifier 1241697759
dc.identifier.uri http://localhost:8080/xmlui/handle/CUHPOERS/275773
dc.description Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, May, 2020
dc.description Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
dc.description Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-205).
dc.description Understanding the nucleon-nucleon (NN) interaction is a fundamental task in nuclear physics, as NN-interaction models are a crucial input to modern nuclear structure calculations. While great progress has been made toward understanding this interaction, the available state-of-the-art models predict significantly different behaviors at short distances and high momenta (scale-and-scheme dependence), where two-nucleon Short-Range Correlations (SRCs) dominate the nuclear wave function. Thus, SRCs are a unique tool to constrain the NN interaction and vice versa. SRCs are naturally-occurring high-local-density NN pairs that, as a result of their short-distance (r </~ 1 fm) repulsive interaction, fly apart with high momenta, hence populating momentum states above the Fermi level (k >/~ & k[subscript F]~~ 250 MeV/c). The study of SRCs also has significant implications for other fields, such as the astrophysics of neutron stars and the behavior of cold atomic gasses. This thesis describes experimental and phenomenological studies of the short-distance / high-momentum structure of the NN interaction through the study of SRCs and vice versa. Experimentally, I report the first measurement of the ³He and ³H(e, e'p) reactions in Hall A of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in kinematics in which the measured cross sections should be sensitive to the underlying nucleon momentum distributions in the range 40 to 500 MeV/c. The resulting cross-section ratios and absolute cross sections were compared to momentum-distribution ratios and precise cross-section calculations respectively. Phenomenologically, I report the generalization of the Contact Formalism (GCF) to nuclear systems, which exploits scale separation and universality to describe nucleons at short distances and high momenta.
dc.description by Reynier Cruz Torres.
dc.description Ph. D.
dc.description Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics
dc.format 205 pages
dc.format application/pdf
dc.language eng
dc.publisher Massachusetts Institute of Technology
dc.rights MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.
dc.rights http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582
dc.subject Physics.
dc.title Two-nucleon short-range correlations in light nuclei
dc.type Thesis


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