Dien Nguyen (UTK): Nuclear Shell structure governs short range nucleon pairing

Monday Aug 17, 2026, 1:50 PM → 3:50 PM US/Eastern

607 (Nielsen)

At very short distances inside nuclei, protons and neutrons can form fleeting pairs with large relative momentum, known as short-range correlations (SRCs). These SRC pairs dominate the high-momentum component of nuclear wave functions and provide a unique window into the short-distance structure of nuclear matter. Due to overlapping quark distributions and strong interactions, SRC pairs also play a crucial role in linking nucleon structure to the underlying dynamics of the strong force and the behavior of dense nuclear systems. Although many properties of SRCs have been investigated, the fundamental mechanism by which nucleons form correlated pairs remains an open question. In this talk, I will provide a brief overview of what we have learned about SRCs and present new results that probe the nucleon-pairing mechanism and its connection to nuclear structure.