Probing few-body nuclear dynamics via 3H and 3He (e,e'p)pn cross-section measurements

Understand

We report the first measurement of the \eep three-body breakup reaction cross sections in helium-3 ($^3$He) and tritium ($^3$H) at large momentum transfer ($\langle Q^2 \rangle \approx 1.9$ (GeV/c)$^2$) and $x_B>1$ kinematics, where the cross section should be sensitive to quasielastic (QE) scattering from single nucleons.

• The data cover missing momenta $40 \le p_{miss} \le 500$ MeV/c that, in the QE limit with no rescattering, equals the initial momentum of the probed nucleon.
• The measured cross sections are compared with state-of-the-art ab-initio calculations.
• Overall good agreement, within $\pm20\%$, is observed between data and calculations for the full $p_{miss}$ range for $^3$H and for $100 \le p_{miss} \le 350$ MeV/c for $^3$He.