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%).

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1 tex file (6 pages), 4 (eps) figuresThe beam spin asymmetries in the hard exclusive electroproduction of photons on the proton (ep -> epg) were measured over a wide kinematic range and with high statistical accuracy. These asymmetries result from the interference of the Bethe-Heitler process and of deeply virtual Compton scattering. Over the whole kinematic range (x_B from 0.11 to 0.58, Q^2 from 1 to 4.8 GeV^2, -t from 0.09 to 1.8 GeV^2), the azimuthal dependence of the asymmetries is compatible with expectations from leading-twist dominance, A = a*sin(phi)/[1+c*cos(phi)]. This extensive set of data can thus be used to constrain significantly the generalized parton distributions of the nucleon in the valence quark sector