A=3 (e,e') cross-section ratios and the isospin structure of short-range correlations
A. Schmidt🇺🇸 · A. W. Denniston🇮🇱 · E. M. Seroka🇺🇸 · N. Barnea🇮🇱 · D.W. Higinbotham🇺🇸 · I. Korover🇮🇱 · G.A. Miller🇺🇸 · E. Piasetzky🇮🇱 · M. Strikman🇺🇸 · L.B. Weinstein🇺🇸 · R. Weiss🇺🇸 · O. Hen🇺🇸
We study the relation between measured high-, high-, Helium-3 to Tritium, inclusive-scattering cross-section ratios and the relative abundance of high-momentum neutron-proton () and proton-proton () short-range correlated (SRC) nucleon pairs in three-body () nuclei. Analysis of this data using a simple pair-counting cross-section model suggested a much smaller ratio than previously measured in heavier nuclei, questioning our understanding of nuclei and, by extension, all other nuclei. Here we examine this finding using spectral-function-based cross-section calculations, with both an \textit{ab initio} spectral function and effective Generalized Contact Formalism (GCF) spectral functions using different nucleon-nucleon interaction models. The \textit{ab initio} calculation agrees with the data, showing good understanding of the structure of nuclei. An 8\% uncertainty on the simple pair-counting model, as implied by the difference between it and the \textit{ab initio} calculation, gives a factor of 5 uncertainty in the extracted ratio. Thus we see no evidence for the claimed ``unexpected structure in the high-momentum wavefunction for hydrogen-3 and helium-3''.