Quasi-free proton knockout from C on carbon target at 398 MeV/u

The proton-removal mechanism of the $^{12}$C→11B reaction induced on a carbon target via elementary nucleon-nucleon scattering is investigated in exclusive triple-coincidence measurements. The observed two-nucleon angular correlations are found to be consistent with quasi-free scattering of a projectile-like proton off a target-like nucleon. Exclusive cross sections for one-step pp and pn interactions are determined as σpp=17.2(12) mb and σpn=18.2(18), respectively. The extracted quasi-free component amounts up to 58(4)% of the total proton-removal cross section. The results are compared to total proton-removal cross sections obtained from the experiment and eikonal reaction theory.