We address the issue whether quasifree single-nucleon knockout measurements carry sufficient information about the nuclear interior. To this end, we present comparisons of the reaction probability densities for $A(e,e'p)$ and $A(p,2p)$ in quasifree kinematics for the target nuclei $^{ 4}$He, $^{ 12}$C, $^{ 56}$Fe, and $^{ 208}$Pb. We adopt a comprehensive framework based on the impulse approximation and on a relativized extension of Glauber multiple-scattering reaction theory in which the medium effects related to short-range correlations (SRC) are implemented. It is demonstrated that SRC weaken the effect of attenuation. For light target nuclei, both the quasifree $(p,2p)$ and $(e,e'p)$ can probe average densities of the same order as nuclear saturation density $\rho_{ 0}$. For heavy nuclei like $^{ 208}$Pb, the probed average densities are smaller than $0.1\rho_{ 0}$ and the $(e,e'p)$ reaction is far more efficient in probing the bulk regions than $(p,2p)$.
Categories: nucl-th