No Arabic abstract
New Jefferson Lab data are presented on the nuclear dependence of the inclusive cross section from 2H, 3He, 4He, 9Be and 12C for 0.3<x<0.9, Q^2 approximately 3-6 GeV^2. These data represent the first measurement of the EMC effect for 3He at large x and a significant improvement for 4He. The data do not support previous A-dependent or density-dependent fits to the EMC effect and suggest that the nuclear dependence of the quark distributions may depend on the local nuclear environment.
Measurements of the EMC effect show that the quark distributions in nuclei are not simply the sum of the quark distributions of the constituent nucleons. However, interpretation of the EMC effect is limited by the lack of a reliable baseline calculation of the effects of Fermi motion and nucleon binding. We present preliminary results from JLab experiment E03-103, a precise measurement of the EMC effect in few-body and heavy nuclei. These data emphasize the large-x region, where binding and Fermi motion effects dominate, and thus will provide much better constraints on the effects of binding. These data will also allow for comparisons to calculations for few-body nuclei, where the uncertainty in the nuclear structure is minimized.
We propose to measure tagged deep inelastic scattering from light nuclei (deuterium and $^4$He) by detecting the low energy nuclear spectator recoil (p, $^3$H and $^3$He) in addition to the scattered electron. The proposed experiment will provide stringent tests leading to clear differentiation between the many models describing the EMC effect, by accessing the bound nucleon virtuality through its initial momentum at the point of interaction. Indeed, conventional nuclear physics explanations of the EMC effect mainly based on Fermi motion and binding effects yield very different predictions than more exotic scenarios, where bound nucleons basically loose their identity when embedded in the nuclear medium. By distinguishing events where the interacting nucleon was slow, as described by a mean field scenario, or fast, very likely belonging to a correlated pair, will clearly indicate which phenomenon is relevant to explain the EMC effect. An important challenge for such measurements using nuclear spectators is the control of the theoretical framework and, in particular, final state interactions. This experiment will directly provide the necessary data needed to test our understanding of spectator tagging and final state interactions in $^2$H and $^4$He and their impact on the semi-inclusive measurements of the EMC effect described above.
Recent developments in understanding the influence of the nucleus on deep-inelastic structure functions, the EMC effect, are reviewed. A new data base which expresses ratios of structure functions in terms of the Bjorken variable $x_A=AQ^2/(2M_A q_0)$ is presented. Information about two-nucleon short-range correlations from experiments is also discussed and the remarkable linear relation between short-range correlations and teh EMC effect is reviewed. A convolution model that relates the underlying source of the EMC effect to modification of either the mean-field nucleons or the short-range correlated nucleons is presented. It is shown that both approaches are equally successful in describing the current EMC data.
We determine nuclear structure functions and quark distributions for $^7$Li, $^{11}$B, $^{15}$N and $^{27}$Al. For the nucleon bound state we solve the covariant quark-diquark equations in a confining Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model, which yields excellent results for the free nucleon structure functions. The nucleus is described using a relativistic shell model, including mean scalar and vector fields that couple to the quarks in the nucleon. The nuclear structure functions are then obtained as a convolution of the structure function of the bound nucleon with the light-cone nucleon distributions. We find that we are readily able to reproduce the EMC effect in finite nuclei and confirm earlier nuclear matter studies that found a large polarized EMC effect.
Photons as well as quarks and gluons are constituents of the infinite momentum frame (IMF) wave function of an energetic particle. They are mostly equivalent photons whose amplitude follows from the Lorentz transformation of the particle rest frame Coulomb field into the IMF and from the conservation of the electromagnetic current. We evaluate in a model independent way the dominant photon contribution propto alpha_{em}(Z^2/A^{4/3})ln(1/R_{A}m_{N}x) to the nuclear structure functions as well as the term propto alpha_{em}Z/A. In addition we show that the definition of x consistent with the exact kinematics of eA scattering (with exact sum rules) works in the same direction as the nucleus field of equivalent photons. Combined, these effects account for the bulk of the EMC effect for xle 0.5 where Fermi motion effects are small. In particular for these x the hadronic mechanism contribution to the EMC effect does not exceed sim 3% for all nuclei. Also the A-dependence of the hadronic mechanism of the EMC effect for x > 0.5 is significantly modified.