Two-proton momentum correlation from photondisintegration of $\alpha$-clustering light nuclei in the quasi-deuteron region

TL;DR

This study constructs proton-proton momentum correlation functions from photon-induced disintegration of light nuclei, demonstrating sensitivity to initial nuclear structure and providing a tool for future clustering investigations.

Contribution

It introduces a method to analyze proton-proton correlations in photo-disintegration, linking correlation features to nuclear structure in light nuclei.

Findings

Correlation functions are feasible in photo-nuclear reactions.

Results are sensitive to initial nuclear geometric structures.

Method can aid future alpha-clustering studies.

Abstract

The proton-proton momentum correlation function is constructed in three-body photo-disintegration channels from $^{12}$C and $^{16}$O targets in the quasi-deuteron regime within the framework of an extended quantum molecular dynamics model. Using the formula of Lednicky and Lyuboshitz (LL) for the momentum correlation function, we obtain a proton-proton momentum correlation function for the specific three-body photon-disintegration channels of $^{12}$C and $^{16}$O targets, which are assumed to have different initial geometric structures, and extract their respective emission source sizes for the proton-proton pair. The results demonstrate that constructing a proton-proton momentum correlation is feasible in photo-nuclear reactions, and it is sensitive to the initial nuclear structure. For future experimental studies investigating the $\alpha$-clustering structures of light nuclei, the present work can be used to shed light on the performance and correlation function analysis of ($\gamma$,pp) or (e,$e'$pp) reactions.