Probing short-range nucleon correlations in high-energy hard quasielastic pd reactions

The main new result of this paper is the calculation of the initial and final state interaction in a hard exclusive proton-deuteron reaction. We find that for spectator momenta ≤350 MeV/c and pt∼0 the effect of initial and final state interactions can be accounted for by rescaling the cross section calculated within the plane-wave impulse approximation. We show that the strong dependence of the amplitude for NN hard scattering on the collision energy and the exclusive nature of the quasielastic large-angle pd scattering can be used to magnify the effects of short-range nucleon correlations. The feasibility to investigate in this kinematical region the role of relativistic effects in the deuteron wave function is demonstrated by comparing the predictions of different relativistic approaches. It is demonstrated also that in these kinematics the final and initial state interactions reduce sensitivity of the cross section to uncertainties in the high-momentum component of the deuteron wave function. We also find that for pz∼0 and 150 MeV/cpt 50 MeV/c initial and final state interaction strongly reduce the cross section while relativistic effects are very small. This kinematic is optimal for color-transparency studies. Binding effects due to short-range correlations in the deuteron are discussed as well.