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[PAST EVENT] Physics Colloquium - Dr. Shujie Li
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Dr. Shujie Li, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
Title: Probing high momentum nucleons at Jefferson Lab
Abstract: At Jefferson Lab, we use high-energy electron beams to knock nucleons out of nuclear targets and study their momentum distributions in the initial state. A significant fraction of these knocked-out nucleons (up to 20% in heavy nuclei) have initial momenta exceeding the Fermi level. This phenomenon is primarily explained by short-range nucleon-nucleon interactions, which generate high-momentum nucleon pairs with low center-of-mass momentum within the nucleus.
Decades of experiments at SLAC and JLab have identified and quantified the contribution of 2-nucleon short-range correlations (2N SRCs) in various nuclei, revealing the dominance of deuteron-like np pairs. With the 12 GeV beam upgrade, JLab has further expanded our understanding of the abundance and isospin dependence of 2N SRCs and their connections to nuclear structure, and also become the leading facility in the search of 3N SRCs.
This talk will cover recent advancements in the study of 2-nucleon and 3-nucleon SRCs through inclusive quasi-elastic scattering experiments at JLab, and discuss how these studies provide unique insights into the modifications of quarks and gluons in the nuclear medium.
Sponsored by: Physics