I summarize recent results and discuss upcoming and planned experiments that attempt to elucidate how the structure of nucleons might be modified by nuclear binding.
Although the proton was discovered about 100 years ago, its spin structure still remains a mystery. Recent studies suggest that the orbital angular momentum of sea quarks could significantly contribute to the protons spin. The SeaQuest experiment, which recently completed data collection, probed the unpolarized light quark sea distributions of the proton using the Drell-Yan process. Its successor, the SpinQuest (E1039), will access the $bar{u}$ and $bar{d}$ Sivers functions using polarized NH$_3$ and ND$_3$ targets. A non-zero Sivers asymmetry, observed in SpinQuest, would be a strong indication of non-zero sea-quark orbital angular momentum. The SpinQuest experiment can also probe the sea quarks transversity distribution, which is relevant for the determination of protons tensor charge. Recent study suggests that sea-quarks might contribute significantly to deuterons tensor polarized structure functions. This can be further probed in SpinQuest using tensor polarized ND$_3$ target. The current status and future plan of the experiment are presented.
We present new measurements of electron scattering from high-momentum nucleons in nuclei. These data allow an improved determination of the strength of two-nucleon correlations for several nuclei, including light nuclei where clustering effects can, for the first time, be examined. The data also include the kinematic region where three-nucleon correlations are expected to dominate.
Method: To examine signatures of this alpha-condensation, a compound nucleus reaction using 160, 280, and 400 MeV 16O beams impinging on a carbon target was used to investigate the 12C(16O,7a) reaction. This permits a search for near-threshold states in the alpha-conjugate nuclei up to 24Mg. Results: Events up to an alpha-particle multiplicity of 7 were measured and the results were compared to both an Extended Hauser-Feshbach calculation and the Fermi break-up model. The measured multiplicity distribution exceeded that predicted from a sequential decay mechanism and had a better agreement with the multi-particle Fermi break-up model. Examination of how these 7 alpha final states could be reconstructed to form 8Be and 12C(0_2+) showed a quantitative difference in which decay modes were dominant compared to the Fermi break-up model. No new states were observed in 16O, 20Ne, and 24Mg due to the effect of the N-alpha penetrability suppressing the total alpha-particle dissociation decay mode. Conclusion: The reaction mechanism for a high energy compound nucleus reaction can only be described by a hybrid of sequential decay and multi-particle breakup. Highly alpha-clustered states were seen which did not originate from simple binary reaction processes. Direct investigations of near-threshold states in N-alpha systems are inherently impeded by the Coulomb barrier prohibiting the observation of states in the N-alpha decay channel. No evidence of a highly clustered 15.1 MeV state in 16O was observed from (28Si*,12C(0_2+))16O(0_6+) when reconstructing the Hoyle state from 3 alpha-particles. Therefore, no experimental signatures for alpha-condensation were observed.
Since the pioneering discovery of molecular resonances in the 12C+12C reaction more than half a century ago a great deal of research work has been undertaken in alpha clustering. Our knowledge on physics of nuclear molecules has increased considerably and nuclear clustering remains one of the most fruitful domains of nuclear physics, facing some of the greatest challenges and opportunities in the years ahead. The occurrence of exotic shapes and Bose-Einstein alpha condensates in light N=Z alpha-conjugate nuclei is investigated. Various approaches of the superdeformed and hyperdeformed bands associated with quasimolecular resonant structures are presented. Evolution of clustering from stability to the drip-lines is examined: clustering aspects are, in particular, discussed for light exotic nuclei with large neutron excess such as neutron-rich Oxygen isotopes with their complete spectroscopy.
The neutron-rich 6He and 8He isotopes exhibit an exotic nuclear structure that consists of a tightly bound 4He-like core with additional neutrons orbiting at a relatively large distance, forming a halo. Recent experimental efforts have succeeded in laser trapping and cooling these short-lived, rare helium atoms, and have measured the atomic isotope shifts along the 4He-6He-8He chain by performing laser spectroscopy on individual trapped atoms. Meanwhile, the few-electron atomic structure theory, including relativistic and QED corrections, has reached a comparable degree of accuracy in the calculation of the isotope shifts. In parallel efforts, also by measuring atomic isotope shifts, the nuclear charge radii of lithium and beryllium isotopes have been studied. The techniques employed were resonance ionization spectroscopy on neutral, thermal lithium atoms and collinear laser spectroscopy on beryllium ions. Combining advances in both atomic theory and laser spectroscopy, the charge radii of these light halo nuclei have now been determined for the first time independent of nuclear structure models. The results are compared with the values predicted by a number of nuclear structure calculations, and are used to guide our understanding of the nuclear forces in the extremely neutron-rich environment.