HEP-Astro Seminar | Short-Range Fermion Correlations: From neV to MeV

The atomic nucleus is composed of two different kinds of fermions, protons and neutrons. If the protons and neutrons did not interact, the Pauli exclusion principle would force the majority fermions, usually neutrons, to higher average momentum. However, recent high-energy proton and electron scattering experiments show that short-range interactions between the fermions form correlated, high-momentum, neutron-proton pairs, known as Short-Range Correlations (SRC). Thus, in neutron-rich nuclei the probability of finding a high-momentum (k>kFermi) proton (a minority Fermion) is greater than that of a neutron (a majority Fermion).

In this talk I will present the experimental studies of SRC in nuclei and review some of their wide ranging implications to topics in particle and astro physics (including the EMC effect, neutrino scattering and neutron stars structure and properties). Given time, I will also present a new theoretical description of atomic nuclei, using an asymptotic formalism developed to describe ultra-cold atomic gasses. This first successful use of atomic theory in nuclei may lead the way to simulate certain aspects of nuclei and atomic traps.