Relativistic Effects in Electromagnetic Meson-Exchange Currents for One-Particle Emission Reactions

Following recent studies of non-relativistic reductions of the single-nucleon electromagnetic current operator, here we extend the treatment to include meson exchange current operators. We focus on one-particle emission electronuclear reactions. In contrast to the traditional scheme where approximations are made for the transferred momentum, transferred energy and momenta of the initial-state struck nucleons, we treat the problem exactly for the transferred energy and momentum, thus obtaining new current operators which retain important aspects of relativity not taken into account in the traditional non-relativistic reductions. We calculate the matrix elements of our current operators between the Fermi sphere and a particle-hole state for several choices of kinematics. We present a comparison between our results using approximate current operators and those obtained using the fully-relativistic operators, as well as with results obtained using the traditional non-relativistic current operators.Comment: LaTeX, 31 pages, 7 Postscript figures, to be published in Nucl. Phys.

Superscaling and Charge-changing Neutrino Cross Sections

The superscaling function extracted from inclusive electron scattering data is used to predict high energy charge-changing neutrino cross sections in the quasi-elastic and $\Delta$ regions.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Neutrino Factories and Superbeams, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Frascati (Rome), June 21 - 26, 200

Delta-isobar relativistic meson exchange currents in quasielastic electron scattering

We study the role of the $\Delta$-isobar current on the response functions for high energy inclusive quasielastic electron scattering from nuclei. We consider a general Lagrangian which is compatible with contact invariance and perform a fully relativistic calculation in first-order perturbation theory for one-particle emission. The dependence of the responses upon off-shell parametrizations is analyzed and found to be mild. A discussion of scaling behaviour and a comparison with various non-relativistic approaches are also presented.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures; one page of text added; corrected errors in eq

Relativistic pionic effects in quasielastic electron scattering

The impact of relativistic pionic correlations and meson-exchange currents on the response functions for electromagnetic quasielastic electron scattering from nuclei is studied in detail. Results in first-order perturbation theory are obtained for one-particle emission electronuclear reactions within the context of the relativistic Fermi gas model. Improving upon previous analyses where non-relativistic reductions of the currents were performed, here a fully relativistic analysis in which both forces and currents are treated consistently is presented. Lorentz covariance is shown to play a crucial role in enforcing the gauge invariance of the theory. Effects stemming uniquely from relativity in the pionic correlations are identified and, in particular, a comprehensive study of the self-energy contributions and of the currents associated with the pion is presented. First- and second-kind scaling for high momentum transfer is investigated.Comment: 43 pages, 21 figure

Role of 2p-2h MEC excitations in superscaling

Following recent studies of inclusive electron scattering from nuclei at high energies which focused on two-nucleon emission mediated by meson-exchange currents, in this work the superscaling behavior of such contributions is investigated. Comparisons are made with existing data below the quasielastic peak where at high momentum transfers scaling of the second kind is known to be excellent and scaling of the first kind is good, in the proximity of the peak where both 1p-1h and 2p-2h contributions come into play, and above the peak where inelasticity becomes important and one finds scaling violations of the two kinds.Comment: 27 pages, 12 figures; references adde

Superscaling and neutral current quasielastic neutrino-nucleus scattering

The superscaling approach is applied to studies of neutral current neutrino reactions in the quasielastic regime. Using input from scaling analyses of electron scattering data, predictions for high-energy neutrino and antineutrino cross sections are given and compared with results obtained using the relativistic Fermi gas model. The influence of strangeness content inside the nucleons in the nucleus is also explored.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.

Radiative pion capture in nuclei: a continuum shell-model approach

The radiative pion capture process in nuclei is approached by using a continuum shell-model description of the nucleus, together with a phenomenological treatment of the two particle-two hole effects. It is found that these effects play an important role to reproduce the observed experimental photon energy distribution. This distribution as well as the integrated one depends significantly on the details of the mean field potential. This makes this process interesting to investigate the nuclear structure dynamics.Comment: 21 pages, LateX file + 5 figures, epsf.st

A model of short-range correlations in the charge response

The validity of a model treating the short-range correlations up to the first order is studied by calculating the charge response of an infinite system and comparing the obtained results with those of a Fermi Hypernetted Chain calculation.Comment: 6 pages, 3 Postscript figures, to be published on Phys. Rev.

Using Electron Scattering Superscaling to predict Charge-changing Neutrino Cross Sections in Nuclei

Superscaling analyses of few-GeV inclusive electron scattering from nuclei are extended to include not only quasielastic processes, but now also into the region where $\Delta$-excitation dominates. It is shown that, with reasonable assumptions about the basic nuclear scaling function extracted from data and information from other studies of the relative roles played by correlation and MEC effects, the residual strength in the resonance region can be accounted for through an extended scaling analysis. One observes scaling upon assuming that the elementary cross section by which one divides the residual to obtain a new scaling function is dominated by the $N\to\Delta$ transition and employing a new scaling variable which is suited to the resonance region. This yields a good representation of the electromagnetic response in both the quasielastic and $\Delta$ regions. The scaling approach is then inverted and predictions are made for charge-changing neutrino reactions at energies of a few GeV, with focus placed on nuclei which are relevant for neutrino oscillation measurements. For this a relativistic treatment of the required weak interaction vector and axial-vector currents for both quasielastic and $\Delta$-excitation processes is presented.Comment: 42 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review