Many-body approach to the inclusive ( e, e′) reaction from the quasielastic to the Δ excitation region

Abstract

We have performed a many-body calculation of the inclusive ( e, e′) cross section which runs over the three traditional regions at intermediate energies: the quasielastic peak, the dip region and the delta region. The longitudinal and transverse response functions in the quasielastic peak have also been evaluated. Traditional effects like polarization, meson exchange currents, final state interaction and delta renormalization in the nuclear medium have been included. Meson exchange currents are generated from a model of pion electroproduction on the nucleon which reproduces accurately the experimental data. The inclusive cross section accounts for 1 N, 2 N, 3 N mechanisms of virtual photon absorption and one pion production. Meson exchange currents associated to the ( γ ∗ , 2π) reaction are also accounted for. We obtain good results for the ( e, e′) cross sections in the whole energy range and for different nuclei. The response functions are also in good agreement with the latest experimental analysis. On the other hand, the method provides the separation of the contribution to the inclusive cross section from different physical channels which is a necessary input to evaluate cross sections like ( e, e′ N), ( e, e′ NN), ( e, e′ π), etc.