Momentum sharing in imbalanced Fermi systems

Hen, O; Sargsian, M.; Weinstein, L. B.; Piasetzky, E.; Hakobyan, H.; Higinbotham, D. W.; Braverman, M.; Brooks, W. K.; Gilad, S.; Adhikari, K. P.; Arrington, J.; Asryan, G.; Avakian, H.; Ball, J.; Baltzell, N. A.; Battaglieri, M.; Beck, A.; May Tal Beck, S.; Bedlinskiy, I.; Bertozzi, W.; Biselli, A.; Burkert, V. D.; Cao, T.; Carman, D. S.; Celentano, A.; Chandavar, S.; Colaneri, L.; Cole, P. L.; Crede, V.; D'Angelo, A.; De Vita, R.; Deur, A.; Djalali, C.; Doughty, D.; Dugger, M.; Dupre, R.; Egiyan, H.; El Alaoui, A.; El Fassi, L.; Elouadrhiri, L.; Fedotov, G.; Fegan, S.; Forest, T.; Garillon, B.; Garcon, M.; Gevorgyan, N.; Ghandilyan, Y.; Gilfoyle, G. P.; Girod, F. X.; Goetz, J. T.; Gothe, R. W.; Griffioen, K. A.; Guidal, M.; Guo, L.; Hafidi, K.; Hanretty, C.; Hattawy, M.; Hicks, K.; Holtrop, M.; Hyde, C. E.; Ilieva, Y.; Ireland, D. G.; Ishkanov, B. I.; Isupov, E. L.; Jiang, H.; H. S., Jo; Joo, K.; Keller, D.; Khandaker, M.; Kim, A.; Kim, W.; Klein, F. J.; Koirala, S.; Korover, I.; Kuhn, S. E.; Kubarovsky, V.; Lenisa, P.; Levine, W. I.; Livingston, K.; Lowry, M.; H. Y., Lu; Macgregor, I. J. D.; Markov, N.; Mayer, M.; Mckinnon, B.; Mineeva, T.; Mokeev, V.; Movsisyan, A.; Munoz Camacho, C.; Mustapha, B.; Nadel Turonski, P.; Niccolai, S.; Niculescu, G.; Niculescu, I.; Osipenko, M.; Pappalardo, L. L.; Paremuzyan, R.; Park, K.; Pasyuk, E.; Phelps, W.; Pisano, S.; Pogorelko, O.; Price, J. W.; Procureur, S.; Prok, Y.; Protopopescu, D.; Puckett, A. J. R.; Rimal, D.; Ripani, M.; Ritchie, B. G.; Rizzo, A.; Rosner, G.; Roy, P.; Rossi, P.; Sabatié, F.; Schott, D.; Schumacher, R. A.; Sharabian, Y. G.; Smith, G. D.; Shneor, R.; Sokhan, D.; Stepanyan, S. S.; Stepanyan, S.; Stoler, P.; Strauch, S.; Sytnik, V.; Taiuti, MAURO GINO; Tkachenko, S.; Ungaro, M.; Vlassov, A. V.; Voutier, E.; Walford, N. K.; Wei, X.; Wood, M. H.; Wood, S. A.; Zachariou, N.; Zana, L.; Zhao, Z. W.; Zheng, X.; Zonta, I.

doi:10.1126/science.1256785

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 C-12, Al-27, Fe-56, and Pb-208 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.