Search for nucleon-nucleon correlations in the proton spectral function of 208Pb

Abstract Cross sections for the reaction 208 Pb(e,e′p) have been measured with the continuous electron beam from the Amsterdam Pulse-Stretcher facility at NIKHEF-K. The spectral function has been extracted for protons with initial momenta of 300 to 500 MeV/c and binding energies up to 26 MeV. The data are compared to calculations with and without inclusion of nucleon-nucleon correlations. Mean-field predictions significantly underestimate the data and the discrepancy increases with binding energy. For transitions to the valence states the discrepancy is removed by introducing long-range correlations. Above the two-nucleon emission threshold long-range and short-range correlations reduce the discrepancy, but are insufficient to fully account for the measured strength.