Exclusive Studies of Short Range Correlations in Nuclei and the EMC effect using CLAS12

Short-ranged correlated (SRC) nucleon-nucleon (NN) pairs account for about 20% of all nucleons in medium to heavy nuclei and about 75% of the nuclear kinetic energy. In addition, there is strong evidence linking these pairs to nucleon structure modification in nuclei (the EMC effect). There are many open questions in SRC studies that can only be addressed via high-statistics studies of selected nuclei. These include the existance and properties of Three-Nucleon SRCs, constraining the NN interaction and ab-initio calculations of the nuclear wave function at short distances, understanding factorized effective theories and effective SRC formation mechanisms, studies of three-nucleon correlations, and exploring the detailed connection of SRCs and the EMC effect. The project will focus on addressing some of these open questions by analysing key reactions obtained using nuclear targets in CLAS12.