Quasi--two-body scaling: A study of high-momentum nucleons in nuclear matter

I show that the shapes of the differential cross sections for the ''backward'' production of high-energy particles (p,d,t,...,B11), by projectiles of various type (p,d,α), from nuclei of any A (Be,...,U), and for a large range of incident momenta and backward angles, can be related by quasi--two-body kinematics. This permits the direct determination of the shape of the momentum distribution of high-momentum nucleons in nuclear matter. This distribution is shown to be F (k) = exp(-k/k0)/k over the range 0.4 to 1.5 GeV/c