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.

A study of the P 11 (1440) The transition helicity amplitudes from the proton ground state to the P11(1440) and D13(1520) excited states (γvpN * electrocouplings) were determined from the analysis of nine independent onefold differential π + π − p electroproduction cross sections off a proton target, taken with CLAS at photon virtualities 0.25 GeV 2 < Q 2 < 0.60 GeV 2 . The phenomenological reaction model was employed for separation of the resonant and non-resonant contributions to the final state. The P11(1440) and D13(1520) electrocouplings were obtained from the resonant amplitudes parametrized within the framework of a unitarized Breit-Wigner ansatz. They are consistent with results obtained in the previous CLAS analyses of the π + n and π 0 p channels. The successful description of a large body of data in dominant meson-electroproduction channels off protons with the same γvpN * electrocouplings offers clear evidence for the reliable extraction of these fundamental quantities from meson-electroproduction data. This analysis also led to the determination of the long-awaited hadronic branching ratios for the D13(1520) decay into ∆π (24%-32%) and N ρ (8%-17%).

The reaction γ + p → K + + Σ + π was used to determine the invariant mass distributions or "line shapes" of the Σ + π − , Σ − π + and Σ 0 π 0 final states, from threshold at 1328 MeV/c 2 through the mass range of the Λ(1405) and the Λ(1520). The measurements were made with the CLAS system at Jefferson Lab using tagged real photons, for center-of-mass energies 1.95 < W < 2.85 GeV. The three mass distributions differ strongly in the vicinity of the I = 0 Λ(1405), indicating the presence of substantial I = 1 strength in the reaction. Background contributions to the data from the Σ 0 (1385) and from K * Σ production were studied and shown to have negligible influence. To separate the isospin amplitudes, Breit-Wigner model fits were made that included channel-coupling distortions due to the NK threshold. A best fit to all the data was obtained after including a phenomenological I = 1, J P = 1/2 − amplitude with a centroid at 1394 ± 20 MeV/c 2 and a second I = 1 amplitude at 1413 ± 10 MeV/c 2 . The centroid of the I = 0 Λ(1405) strength was found at the Σπ threshold, with the observed shape determined largely by channel-coupling, leading to an apparent overall peak near 1405 MeV/c 2 .

We report measurements of the photon beam asymmetry Σ for the reactions γp → pπ 0 and γp → pη from the GLUEX experiment using a 9 GeV linearly-polarized, tagged photon beam incident on a liquid hydrogen target in Jefferson Lab's Hall D. The asymmetries, measured as a function of the proton momentum transfer, possess greater precision than previous π 0 measurements and are the first η measurements in this energy regime. The results are compared with theoretical predictions based on t-channel, quasi-particle exchange and constrain the axial-vector component of the neutral meson production mechanism in these models.

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