Dependence of two-nucleon momentum densities on total pair momentum

Two-nucleon momentum distributions are calculated for the ground states of ³He and ⁴He as a function of the nucleons’ relative and total momenta. We use variational Monte Carlo wave functions derived from a realistic Hamiltonian with two- and three-nucleon potentials. The momentum distribution of pp pairs is found to be much smaller than that of pn pairs for values of the relative momentum in the range 300–500 MeV/c and vanishing total momentum. However, as the total momentum increases to 400 MeV/c, the ratio of pp to pn pairs in this relative momentum range grows and approaches the limit 1/2 for ³He and 1/4 for ⁴He, corresponding to the ratio of pp to pn pairs in these nuclei. This behavior should be easily observable in two-nucleon knock-out processes, such as A(e,e^'pN).