Short-Range Nucleon-Nucleon Correlations Investigated with the ReactionC12(e,e′pp)

The reaction ${}_{}{}^{12}{}_{}{}^{}C\left({e,e}^{\prime }\mathrm{pp}\right)$ has been studied at an energy transfer $\omega =212\mathrm{MeV}$ and a three-momentum transfer $|\mathit{q}|=70\mathrm{MeV}/c$. The measured missing-energy spectrum shows a signature for knockout of proton pairs from $(1p{)}^2$, $(1p,1s)$, and $(1s{)}^2$ states. A comparison of the data with a calculation, in which different processes leading to two-nucleon knockout are accounted for, shows that the measured cross section for the knockout of a $(1p{)}^2$ pair can largely be attributed to short-range nucleon-nucleon correlations.