The neutron magnetic form factor G_M^n(Q^2) from Quasi-Elastic inclusive scattering data on D and 4He

We analyze cross sections for Quasi-Elastic inclusive scattering of electrons on nuclei and show that the observed isolated peaks for relatively low $Q^2$ are unique for the lightest targets. Focusing in particular on D and $^4$He, we investigate in two ways to what measure the above peaks can be allocated to nucleon-elastic processes. We first compute approximate upper limits for the nucleon-inelastic background in the Quasi-Elastic region due to inclusive $\Delta$ excitation, and find those to be small. Far more precise is a semi-phenomenological approach, where the dominance of nucleon-elastic processes is translated into a set of stringent requirements. We show that those are very well fulfilled for recent D data, and to a somewhat lesser extent for older D and $^4$He data. With knowledge of $G_{E,M}^p$ and information on $G_E^n$, we then extract $G_M^n$ and find agreement with values obtained by alternative methods. We discuss the sensitivity of the extraction method and mention future applications.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, revtex4, revised version, Phys. Rev. C, in pres

Relativistic approaches to structure functions of nuclei

We employ a propagator technique to derive a new relativistic 1/\qq expansion of the structure function of a nucleus, composed of point-nucleons. We exploit non-relativistic features of low-momentum nucleons in the target and only treat relativistically the nucleon after absorption of a high-momentum virtual photon. The new series permits a 3-dimensional reduction of each term and a formal summation of all Final State Interaction terms. We then show that a relativistic structure function can be obtained from its non-relativistic analog by a mere change of a scaling variable and an addition of an energy shift. We compare the obtained result with an ad hoc generalized Gersch-Rodriguez-Smith theory, previously used in computations of nuclear structure functions.Comment: Comparison with data is included, to be published in PRC, Feb. 200