Probing correlations in A=3 systems using electron scattering

We report the first measurement of the (e,e'p) reaction cross-section ratio for Helium-3 (3He) relative to Tritium (3H). The measurement covered a missing momentum range of 40 <= Pmiss <= 550 MeV/c, at large momentum transfer (<Q2> = 1.9 (GeV/c)^2) and xB > 1, which minimized contributions from non quasi-elastic (QE) reaction mechanisms. The data is compared with calculations using a plane-wave impulse approximation (PWIA) and a realistic three-nucleon spectral function. The measured and PWIA calculated cross-section ratios agree within the measurement accuracy of about 3% up to the nuclear Fermi-momentum (250 MeV/c) and differ by 30% at higher momenta. Final state interaction (FSI) calculations using the generalized Eikonal Approximation indicate that FSI should change the 3He/3H cross-section ratio for this measurement by less than 5%. This suggests that the 30% difference between the 3He/3H experimental ratio and momentum distribution ratios at large missing momenta could be due to the underlying NN interaction, and thus could provide significant new constraints on the previously loosely-constrained short-distance parts of the NN interaction.