Evidence for short-range correlations from high ${\mathit{Q}}^2$ (e,e’) reactions

We argue that the ratio of cross sections of quasielastic electron scattering for heavy and light nuclei at x>1 and ${\mathit{Q}}^2$>1 (GeV/c${)}^2$ should exhibit simple scaling relations which are ultimately expressed through the ratio of the light-cone nucleon distributions in nuclei. We extract these cross section ratios from existing data in a practically model independent way. The results are found to be in reasonable agreement with our x-scaling relations for the region of 2>x≥1.4 where the contribution of two-nucleon short-range correlations are expected to dominate. The ratios exhibit scaling in the light-cone fraction, α, of the struck nucleon for the range 2>x≥0.9. The α scaling is in agreement with the expectations of the light-cone quantum mechanics of nuclei, providing further evidence for the dominance of short-range correlations in nuclei at k>0.3 GeV/c. An extension of this analysis to the interpretation of color transparency experiments is discussed.

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