Inclusive quasielastic scattering of polarized electrons from polarized nuclei

Abstract

The inclusive quasielastic response functions that appear in the scattering of polarized electrons from polarized nuclei are computed and analyzed for several closed-shell-minus-one nuclei with special attention paid to 39K. Results are presented using two models for the ejected nucleon --- when described by a distorted wave in the continuum shell model or by a plane wave in PWIA with on- and off-shell nucleons. Relativistic effects in kinematics and in the electromagnetic current have been incorporated throughout. Specifically, the recently obtained expansion of the electromagnetic current in powers only of the struck nucleon's momentum is employed for the on-shell current and the effects of the first-order terms (spin-orbit and convection) are compared with the zeroth-order (charge and magnetization) contributions. The use of polarized inclusive quasielastic electron scattering as a tool for determining near-valence nucleon momentum distributions is discussed.