The atomic nucleus is composed of two different kinds of fermions: protons and neutrons. If the protons and neutrons did not interact, the Pauli exclusion principle would force the majority of fermions (usually neutrons) to have a higher average momentum. Our high-energy electron-scattering measurements using (12)C, (27)Al, (56)Fe, and (208)Pb targets show that even in heavy, neutron-rich nuclei, short-range interactions between the fermions form correlated high-momentum neutron-proton pairs. Thus, in neutron-rich nuclei, protons have a greater probability than neutrons to have momentum greater than the Fermi momentum. This finding has implications ranging from nuclear few-body systems to neutron stars and may also be observable experimentally in two-spin-state, ultracold atomic gas systems.

We report on the measurement of the γp → J/ψp cross section from Eγ = 11.8 GeV down to the threshold at 8.2 GeV using a tagged photon beam with the GlueX experiment. We find the total cross section falls toward the threshold less steeply than expected from two-gluon exchange models. The differential cross section dσ/dt has an exponential slope of 1.67 ± 0.39 GeV −2 at 10.7 GeV average energy. The LHCb pentaquark candidates P + c can be produced in the s-channel of this reaction. We see no evidence for them and set model-dependent upper limits on their branching fractions B(P + c → J/ψp).

We report the first results of the beam-spin asymmetry measured in the reaction e⃗p→epγ at a beam energy of 4.25 GeV. A large asymmetry with a sinφ modulation is observed, as predicted for the interference term of deeply virtual compton scattering (DVCS) and the Bethe-Heitler process. The amplitude of this modulation is α = 0.202±0.028. In leading-order and leading-twist perturbative QCD, the α is directly proportional to the imaginary part of the DVCS amplitude