Short-Range Correlations and the EMC Effect in Effective Field Theory

Area of Science:

• Nuclear Physics
• Quantum Chromodynamics
• Effective Field Theory

Background:

• The European Muon Collaboration (EMC) effect describes modifications to nucleon structure within nuclei.
• Short-range correlations (SRCs) are crucial for understanding nuclear structure and dynamics.
• A linear relationship has been empirically observed between the EMC effect and SRC scaling factor a₂.

Purpose of the Study:

• To theoretically explain the observed linear relationship between the EMC effect and the SRC scaling factor a₂.
• To derive this relationship using effective field theory and scale separation principles.
• To verify the theoretical predictions with nuclear structure calculations.

Main Methods:

• Derivation of the relationship using effective field theory.
• Analysis of scale separation in nuclear interactions.
• Green's function Monte Carlo (GFMC) calculations with chiral and Argonne-Urbana potentials.
• Variational Monte Carlo (VMC) calculations.

Main Results:

• The empirical linear relation is shown to be a natural consequence of scale separation.
• The derived relationship is independent of the chosen calculational scheme for nuclear matrix elements.
• GFMC calculations for light nuclei (³He, ⁴He) show good agreement with experimental SRC scaling factors.
• VMC calculations provide SRC scaling factors for ⁹Be and ¹²C.

Conclusions:

• The study provides a theoretical foundation for the link between the EMC effect and SRCs.
• The derived relationship offers a new perspective on nuclear structure modifications.
• Calculations confirm the validity of the theoretical framework and provide quantitative predictions for various nuclei.