Short-range correlations in asymmetric nuclear matter

The spectral function of protons in the asymmetric nuclear matter is calculated in the self-consistent T -matrix approach. The spectral function per proton increases with increasing asymmetry. This effect and the density dependence of the spectral function partially explain the observed increase of the spectral function with the mass number of the target nuclei in electron scattering experiments. short-range correlations, electron scattering, spectral function 21.65.+f, 24.10.Cn, 25.30.-c The hard core in the free nucleon-nucleon potential induces strong short-range correlations in the nuclear medium. The inclusion of these correlations in the modeling of the nuclear medium is crucial [1]. Variational [2, 3, 4], Brueckner-Hartree-Fock [5, 6, 7, 8, 9], and self-consistent T -matrix [10, 11, 12, 13] nuclear matter calculations take this effect into account. As a result of the scattering in the medium nucleonic excitations get dressed. A measure of such medium modifications is given by the spectral function, which can be observed in electron scattering experiments. The extraction of the spectral function is relatively straightforward in the Plane Wave Impulse Approximation but important final state rescattering effects complicate the analysis. The knowledge of the spectral function sheds light on the origin of the nuclear binding energy [14] and gives the nucleon momentum distribution. ∗Electronic address : [email protected]