Coherent interactions of a fast proton with the short-range NN correlations in the nucleus

Nuclear structure at short NN distances is still poorly understood. In particular, the full quantum structure of the nucleus with a correlated NN pair is a challenge to theory. So far, model descriptions have been limited to the average mean-field picture of the remaining nuclear system after removing the NN pair. In the recent experiment of the BM@N Collaboration at JINR [M. Patsyuk et al., Nat. Phys. 17, 693 (2021)], the reactions C-12(p, 2pn(s))B-10 and C-12(p, 2pp(s))Be-10 induced by the hard elastic pp scattering were studied. Here, n(s) or p(s) denote the undetected slow nucleon in the rest frame of C-12. In contrast to the previous experiments, the residual bound nucleus was also detected which requires a new level of theoretical understanding. In the present work, we apply the technique of fractional parentage coefficients of the translationally invariant shell model to calculate the spectroscopic amplitude of the system NN-B where B is the remaining nuclear system. The spectroscopic amplitude enters the full amplitude of a nuclear reaction. The relative NN-B wave function is no longer a free parameter of the model but is uniquely related to the internal state of B. The interaction of the target proton with the NN pair is considered in the impulse approximation. We also include the initial- and final-state interactions of absorptive type as well as the single charge exchange processes. Our calculations are in a reasonable agreement with the BM@N data.