Investigation of proton-proton short-range correlations via the 12C(e,e'pp) reaction.

In this work we present a simultaneous measurement of the 12C(e,e'p) and 12C(e,e'pp) reactions. This measurement was done as part of the E01-015 experiment at Hall A of Jefferson Lab, at Q2 = 2 (GeV/c) 2 , xB = 1.2, for an (e,e'p) missing-momentum range from 300 to 600 MeV/c. At these kinematics conditions, with a missing-momentum greater than the Fermi momentum of nucleons in a nucleus and far from the D excitation, nucleon-nucleon Short-Range Correlations (SRCs) are predicted to dominate the reaction. For 9.5 ± 2% of the 12C(e,e2p) events, a recoiling partner proton was observed in the opposite direction to the 12C(e,e2p) missing momentum vector with roughly equal momentum. This observation is an experimental signature for proton-proton short-range correlations (pp-SRC) in nuclei. Even though the probability of pp-SRCs in nuclei is small, they are important since they can teach us about the strong interaction at short distances. Moreover, as a manifestation of asymmetric