Mapping the Mean-Field to SRC Transition

Nuclear many-body theory can make excellent predictions for behavior of nuclei at momentum below the nuclear Fermi momentum. Recently, theories of short-range correlated (SRC) pairs have been developed to model behavior of nuclei far above the Fermi momentum. However, understanding the transition from mean field to SRC dominated regimes has been a challenge for nuclear theory. New analysis of (e, e'p) data from JLab has allowed us to map a cross section ratio as a function of the initial nucleon momentum, which we can compare to sophisticated mean field calculations to understand the transition. Our analysis gives us an upper bound on the momentum where any non-SRC physics can occur, allowing us to use factorized models of the nucleus with confidence above this momentum. We also extract a transition function which can be used to drive future development of theories which combine mean field physics and correlations in nuclei.