Extraction of nucleon momentum distributions from inclusive electron scattering on nuclei

Abstract

We address the problem of extracting single-nucleon momentum distributions $n(p)$ from inclusice scattering data. A model for these relates nuclear and nucleon structure functions (SF) through an intermediate SF $f^{PN}$ for a nucleus of point-particles. In addition to the asymptotic limit (AL) which depends on $n(p), f^{PN}$ contains, generally $q$-dependent Final State Interactions (FSI) parts. In the inverse problem one wishes to separate $q$-dependent FSI from the AL. In general it suffices to know the structure of the theory, but not numerical results. It appears, that in the $q$-range of the analyzed electron scattering data, FSI are only weakly $q$-dependent, making it virtually impossible to obtain parameters in a free fit of the parametrized components of $f$. Imposing a restriction, we obtain $n(p)$ for Fe and $^4$Fe.