Structure functions for the three-nucleon system

Abstract

The spectral functions and light-cone momentum distributions of protons and neutrons in ³He and ³H are given in terms of the three-nucleon wave function for realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions. To reduce computational complexity, separable expansions are employed for the nucleon-nucleon potentials. The results for the light-cone momentum distributions suggest that they are not very sensitive to the details of the two-body interaction, as long as it has reasonable short-range repulsion. The unpolarized and polarized structure functions are examined for both ³He and ³H in order to test the usefulness of ³He as a neutron target. It is found that the measurement of the spin structure function of polarized ³H would provide a very clear test of the predicted change in the polarized parton distributions of a bound proton.