Differential cross section measurement of the ¹²C(e,e’pp)¹⁰Be_g.s. reaction

The differential cross section was measured for the ¹²C(e,e’pp)¹⁰Be_g.s. reaction at energy and momentum transfers of 163MeV and 198MeV/c, respectively. The measurement was performed at the Mainz Microtron by using two high-resolution magnetic spectrometers of the A1 Collaboration and a newly developed silicon detector telescope. The overall resolution of the detector system was sufficient to distinguish the ground state from the first excited state in ¹⁰ Be. We chose a super-parallel geometry that minimizes the effect of two-body currents and emphasizes the effect of nucleon-nucleon correlations. The obtained differential cross section is compared to the theoretical results of the Pavia reaction code in which different processes leading to two-nucleon knockout are accounted for microscopically. The comparison shows a strong sensitivity to nuclear-structure input and the measured cross section is seen to be dominated by the interplay between long- and short-range nucleon-nucleon correlations. Microscopic calculations based on the ab initio self-consistent Green’s function method give a reasonable description of the experimental cross section.