Probing Cold Dense Nuclear Matter

TL;DR

This paper investigates the prevalence of different nucleon pairs in nuclei, revealing a dominance of neutron-proton pairs over like pairs, which has implications for understanding cold dense nuclear matter such as neutron stars.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence on nucleon pair correlations in nuclei, highlighting the dominance of neutron-proton pairs over proton-proton and neutron-neutron pairs.

Findings

Neutron-proton pairs are nearly twenty times more prevalent than proton-proton pairs in 12C.

The observed pair distributions are due to the nature of the strong nuclear force.

Results have implications for understanding the structure of neutron stars.

Abstract

The protons and neutrons in a nucleus can form strongly correlated nucleon pairs. Scattering experiments, where a proton is knocked-out of the nucleus with high momentum transfer and high missing momentum, show that in 12C the neutron-proton pairs are nearly twenty times as prevalent as proton-proton pairs and, by inference, neutron-neutron pairs. This difference between the types of pairs is due to the nature of the strong force and has implications for understanding cold dense nuclear systems such as neutron stars.