Investigation of Proton-Proton Short-Range Correlations via the<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mmultiscripts><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">C</mml:mi><mml:mprescripts/><mml:none/><mml:mn>12</mml:mn></mml:mmultiscripts><mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo><mml:mi>e</mml:mi><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:msup><mml:mi>e</mml:mi><mml:mo>′</mml:mo></mml:msup><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo></mml:math>Reaction

We investigated simultaneously the 12C(e,e'p) and 12C(e,e'pp) reactions at Q2=2 (GeV/c)2, xB=1.2, and in an (e, e'p) missing-momentum range from 300 to 600 MeV/c. At these kinematics, with a missing momentum greater than the Fermi momentum of nucleons in a nucleus and far from the delta excitation, short-range nucleon-nucleon correlations are predicted to dominate the reaction. For (9.5+/-2)% of the 12C(e,e'p) events, a recoiling partner proton was observed back-to-back to the 12C(e,e'p) missing-momentum vector, an experimental signature of correlations.