Nucleon-Nucleon Correlations and Inclusive Electron Scattering off Few-Nucleon Systems at x > 1

Abstract

Inclusive electron scattering off few-nucleon systems is investigated at $x>1$ and high momentum transfer, including the contributions from quasi-elastic and deep inelastic scattering processes. It is shown that at $x>1$ the inclusive cross section is dominated by the process of virtual photon absorption on a pair of correlated nucleons both in case of quasi-elastic and deep inelastic scattering events. The sensitivity of the nuclear response to the effects arising from the possible presence of multiquark cluster configurations at short internucleon separations as well as from possible medium-dependent modifications of the nucleon structure function, is illustrated.