Reactions that involve the direct and sudden removal of a pair of like or unlike nucleons from a fast projectile beam by a light target nucleus are considered. Specifically, we study the three two-nucleon removal channels from ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ that populate final states in the ${}^{10}\mathrm{Be}$, ${}^{10}\mathrm{B}$, and ${}^{10}\mathrm{C}$ reaction residues. The calculated two-nucleon removal cross sections and the residue momentum distributions are compared with available high-energy data at 250, 1050, and 2010 MeV per nucleon, i.e., data that are inclusive with respect to the bound final states of the residues. The measured $\mathit{np}$ removal cross sections only are significantly greater than the values calculated, suggesting that the reaction mechanism observes enhanced $\mathit{np}$ spatial correlations compared to those present in the shell-model wave functions.

• Received 7 December 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.83.014605