Universality test of short range nucleon-nucleon correlations in nuclei with strange and charmed probes

Abstract

Understanding the EMC effect and its relation to the short-range nucleon-nucleon correlations (SRC) in nuclei is a major challenge for modern nuclear physics. One of the key aspects of the connection between these phenomena is the universality. The universality states that the SRC is responsible for the EMC effect and that the modification of the partonic structure of the SRC is the same in different nuclei. The flavor dependence of the universality is one of the unanswered questions. The investigations conducted to date have demonstrated the existence and universality of the SRC for light u and d quarks. Recently, it was suggested that the universality for heavy flavors can be studied through their deep subthreshold production in gamma A and eA collisions. In this paper, we discuss an alternative possibility to access the strange and gluon high-X structure of the SRC and to establish universality for heavy flavors using nuclear semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (nSIDIS), which probes different quark flavor combinations depending on the final state hadron. The specific reaction can be "tagged" by observation of a strange or charmed particle registered in coincidence with the scattering lepton. The universality of the SRC can be tested in the kinematic region, i.e., X > 1, where the contribution to the cross section from SRC becomes dominant Exploring the strangeness, charmonium, and open charm will shed light on the role of quarks and gluons in nuclei, thereby developing an understanding of how nuclei emerge within QCD.