Selectivity of the 16O(e,e'pp) reaction to discrete final states

Resolution of discrete final states in the $^{16}$O(e,e$'$pp)$^{14}$C reaction may provide an interesting tool to discriminate between contributions from one- and two-body currents in this reaction. This is based on the observation that the $0^+$ ground state and first $2^+$ state of $^{14}$C are reached predominantly by the removal of a $^1S_0$ pair from $^{16}$O in this reaction, whereas other states mostly arise by the removal of a $^3P$ pair. This theoretical prediction has been supported recently by an analysis of the pair momentum distribution of the experimental data. In this paper we present results of reaction calculations performed in a direct knock-out framework where final-state interaction and one- and two-body currents are included. The two-nucleon overlap integrals are obtained from a calculation of the two-proton spectral function of $^{16}$O and include both long-range and short-range correlations. The kinematics chosen in the calculations is relevant for recent experiments at NIKHEF and Mainz.