Study of the ¹²C(e,e'p) reaction in a correlations dominant regime with Q² = 2.0 (GeV/c)² and XB̳ > 1

This experiment was motivated by studying short-range nucleon-nucleon correlations via multinucleon knockout reactions -- (e, e'pN). The data were taken in Hall A at Jefferson Lab using the pair of high resolution spectrometers to detect the (e, e'p) reaction data, and using a third large acceptance spectrometer called BigBite to detect the second nucleon ejected from the nucleus. The kinematics were chosen to be conducive for studying short-range correlations -- namely a large momentum transfer and xB > 1.The central kinematic values used during the experiment were Q2 = 2 (GeV/c)2 and xB = 1.2, although the spectrometer acceptances resulted in a range of both Q2 and xB being recorded in the data. While the electron spectrometer was unchanged during the experiment, the proton spectrometer was changed to cover a range of missing momentum values, ~Pm ~ 200 - 650 MeV/c; this resulted in three different datasets. This thesis presents the analysis and results of the (e, e'p) reaction channel. The motivation of the experiment is discussed and a description of the experimental equipment is given. The methods used to calibrate the equipment, improve the analysis software and to extract the cross-sections from the data are described. The cross-section results from both the 12C(e, e'p)11B bound state and the 12C(e, e'p) continuum reaction channels are presented. The 12C(e, e'p)11B results are compared to theoretical calculations and show agreement for Pm < 300 MeV/c but significant disagreement at larger missing momenta. The data from different kinematic settings which overlap in missing momentum around ~Pm = 400 MeV/c did not provide sufficient statistics to extract a meanful cross-section measurement. The 12C(e, e'p) continuum cross-sections are extracted as a function of missing energy over a range of missing momentum. A peak is observed in the cross-sections as a function of missing momentum; this is consistent with scattering from a quasideuteron pair. However, the peak location is different from the location predicted using the quasideuteron model.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Monaghan, Peter (Peter Andrew)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• William Bertozzi and Shalev Gilad.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/45161

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/45161