Measuring Recoiling Nucleons from the Nucleus with the Electron Ion Collider

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates through simulations that the Electron Ion Collider can effectively detect recoiling nucleons, enabling advanced studies of nuclear structure, short-range correlations, and the EMC effect at higher momentum transfers than current experiments.

Contribution

It shows the feasibility of using the EIC to detect recoiling nucleons across a wide momentum range, advancing nuclear physics research capabilities.

Findings

Detection of recoiling nucleons over a broad momentum spectrum is feasible at the EIC.

EIC measurements can reach larger momentum transfers than existing fixed target experiments.

Data from EIC can clarify the connection between the EMC effect and short-range correlations.

Abstract

Short range correlated nucleon-nucleon ($NN$) pairs are an important part of the nuclear ground state. They are typically studied by scattering an electron from one nucleon in the pair and detecting its spectator correlated partner ("spectator-nucleon tagging"). The Electron Ion Collider (EIC) should be able to detect these nucleons, since they are boosted to high momentum in the lab frame by the momentum of the ion beam. To determine the feasibility of these studies with the planned EIC detector configuration, we have simulated quasi-elastic scattering for two electron and ion beam energy configurations: 5 GeV $e^{-}$ and 41 GeV/A ions, and 10 GeV $e^{-}$ and 110 GeV/A ions. We show that the knocked-out and recoiling nucleons can be detected over a wide range of initial nucleon momenta. We also show that these measurements can achieve much larger momentum transfers than current fixed target experiments. By detecting both low and high initial-momentum nucleons, the EIC will provide the data that should allow scientists to definitively show if the EMC effect and short-range correlation are connected, and to improve our understanding of color transparency.