Structure of 3He in backward elastic p-3He scattering

Backward elastic p-He-3-scattering at incident proton kinetic energies T-p > 1 GeV is investigated in the framework of the np-pair transfer mechanism and triangular diagram of one-pion exchange with a subprocess pd --> He-3 pi(0) using a realistic three-body wave function of the He-3 nucleus. It is found that the np-pair transfer mechanism dominates owing to a rich high momentum component of the He-3 wave function. We show that the experimental cross section of this process is defined mainly by the values of the Faddeev component of the He-3 wave function, phi(23) (q(23), p(1)), at high relative momenta q(23) > 0.6 GeV/c of the NN-pair in the S-1(0) state and at low spectator momenta p(1) less than or equal to 0.1 GeV/c. The spin-spin correlation parameter is calculated in the framework of the dominating mechanism for the case of a polarized target and beam. Rescatterings in the initial and final states are taken into account. Comparison with the pd --> dp process is performed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.