Theory of inelastic lepton-nucleus scattering

This work reports the studies of the quark structure of a nucleus. Deuterium is the simplest nuclear system with weak binding energy and low average density so that it provides an ideal starting point for this study. Models based on the one photon exchange process should provide a good description of deuterium inelastic lepton scattering data. Furthermore, the available deuterium data cover the widest kinematical range among all A ≥ 2 targets. If the conventional nuclear physics picture is correct, the quasi-elastic nucleon knockout process along with nucleon inelastic processes should be able to account for the inelastic lepton scattering data. However, there are uncertainties in the deuteron wave functions, nucleon elastic from factors and nucleon inelastic structure functions. To understand these uncertainties and their possible role in obscuring the quark structure of the nucleus, I examined two deuteron wave function models: Reid Soft Core (RSC) and Bonn; three nucleon elastic form factors: Blatnik and Zovko, Hoehler, and Gari and Kruempelmann; and three nucleon inelastic structure function models: Buras and Gaemers (BG), Abbott, Atwood and Barnett (AAB), and Duke and Owens (DO)