Parity-violating longitudinal response

The longitudinal quasielastic parity-violating electron scattering response is explored within the context of a model that builds antisymmetrized RPA-HF correlations on a relativistic Fermi gas basis. The large sensitivity to nuclear dynamics of this observable, found in previous studies where only pionic correlations were included, is shown to survive in the present model where the effects from pion, rho, sigma and omega exchange in a version of the Bonn potential are incorporated. Through an intricate diagrammatic cancellation/filtration mechanism the longitudinal parity-violating response turns out to be close to the one obtained in first-order perturbation theory with the pion alone. Finally, in accord with our previous work, the parity-violating response is seen to display appreciable sensitivity to the electric strangeness content of the nucleon, especially at high momentum transfer.Comment: 13 pages, uses REVTeX and epsfig, 10 postscript figures; a postscript version of the paper is available by anonymous ftp at ftp://carmen.to.infn.it/pub/barbaro/papers/951

Meson-exchange currents and quasielastic neutrino cross sections in the SuperScaling Approximation model

We evaluate the quasielastic double differential neutrino cross sections obtained in a phenomenological model based on the superscaling behavior of electron scattering data. We compare our results with the recent experimental data for neutrinos of MiniBooNE and estimate the contribution of the vector meson-exchange currents in the 2p-2h sector.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Parity-Violating Electron Scattering from the Pion-Correlated Relativistic Fermi Gas

Parity-violating quasielastic electron scattering is studied within the context of the relativistic Fermi gas and its extensions to include the effects of pionic correlations and meson-exchange currents. The work builds on previous studies using the same model; here the part of the parity-violating asymmetry that contains axial-vector hadronic currents is developed in detail using those previous studies and a link is provided to the transverse vector-isovector response. Various integrated observables are constructed from the differential asymmetry. These include an asymmetry averaged over the quasielastic peak, as well as the difference of the asymmetry integrated to the left and right of the peak -- the latter is shown to be optimal for bringing out the nature of the pionic correlations. Special weighted integrals involving the differential asymmetry and electromagnetic cross section, based on the concepts of y-scaling and sum rules, are constructed and shown to be suited to studies of the single-nucleon form factor content in the problem, in particular, to determinations of the isovector/axial-vector and electric strangeness form factors. Comparisons are also made with recent predictions made on the basis of relativistic mean-field theory.Comment: 28 pages, LATeX, 13 figures (tar-compressed postscript files, available from the authors), MIT preprint CTP#222

The 2p-2h electromagnetic response in the quasielastic peak and beyond

The contribution to the nuclear transverse response function R_T arising from two particle-two hole (2p-2h) states excited through the action of electromagnetic meson exchange currents (MEC) is computed in a fully relativistic framework. The MEC considered are those carried by the pion and by Delta degrees of freedom, the latter being viewed as a virtual nucleonic resonance. The calculation is performed in the relativistic Fermi gas model in which Lorentz covariance can be maintained. All 2p-2h many-body diagrams containing two pionic lines that contribute to R_T are taken into account and the relative impact of the various components of the MEC on R_T is addressed. The non-relativistic limit of the MEC contributions is also discussed and compared with the relativistic results to explore the role played by relativity in obtaining the 2p-2h nuclear response.Comment: 27 pages, 12 figures, revtex4; minor modifications in the discussion of the results, references adde

The Pion in Electromagnetic and Weak Neutral Current Nuclear Response Functions

The impact of pionic correlations and meson--exchange currents in determining the (vector) response functions for electroweak quasielastic lepton scattering from nuclei is discussed. The approach taken builds on previous work where the Fermi gas model is used to maintain consistency in treating forces and currents (gauge invariance) and to provide a Lorentz covariant framework. Results obtained in first-order perturbation theory are compared with infinite-order summation schemes (HF and RPA) and found to provide quite successful approximations for the quasielastic response functions. The role of pionic correlations in hardening the responses R_L and R_T is investigated in some detail, including studies of the relative importance of central and tensor pieces of the force and of exchange and self-energy diagrams; in addition, their role in significantly modifying the longitudinal parity-violating response R_{AV}^L is explored. The MEC are shown to provide a small, but non-negligible, contribution in determining the vector responses.Comment: TeX, 21 figures (Postscript, available from the authors), MIT preprint CTP\#219

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

Investigation of the Neutron Form Factors by Inclusive Quasi-Elastic Scattering of Polarized Electrons off Polarized 3^{3}He: A Theoretical Overview

The theory of quasi-elastic inclusive scattering of polarized leptons off polarized $^3$He is critically reviewed and the origin of different expressions for the polarized nuclear response function appearing in the literature is explained. The sensitivity of the longitudinal asymmetry upon the neutron form factors is thoroughly investigated and the role played by the polarization angle for minimizing the proton contribution is illustrated.Comment: Phys. Rev C in press; 9 figs. (available upon request

Superscaling of Inclusive Electron Scattering from Nuclei

We investigate the degree to which the concept of superscaling, initially developed within the framework of the relativistic Fermi gas model, applies to inclusive electron scattering from nuclei. We find that data obtained from the low energy loss side of the quasielastic peak exhibit the superscaling property, i.e., the scaling functions f(\psi') are not only independent of momentum transfer (the usual type of scaling: scaling of the first kind), but coincide for A \geq 4 when plotted versus a dimensionless scaling variable \psi' (scaling of the second kind). We use this behavior to study as yet poorly understood properties of the inclusive response at large electron energy loss.Comment: 33 pages, 12 color EPS figures, LaTeX2e using BoxedEPSF macros; email to [email protected]

Plane-wave impulse approximation extraction of the neutron magnetic form factor from quasielastic 3He(e,e′) at Q2=0.3 to 0.6 (GeV/c)2

A high precision measurement of the transverse spin-dependent asymmetry AT′ in 3He(e,e′) quasielastic scattering was performed in Hall A at Jefferson Lab at values of the squared four-momentum transfer, Q2, between 0.1 and 0.6 (GeV/c)2. AT′ is sensitive to the neutron magnetic form factor, GMn. Values of GMn at Q2=0.1 and 0.2 (GeV/c)2, extracted using Faddeev calculations, were reported previously. Here, we report the extraction of GMn for the remaining Q2 values in the range from 0.3 to 0.6 (GeV/c)2 using a plane-wave impulse approximation calculation. The results are in good agreement with recent precision data from experiments using a deuterium target