Deep inelastic lepton scattering and the quark structure of nuclei

Deep inelastic lepton scattering has proven to be a powerful tool for discovering the substructure of the hadrons. In the same way, we expect that deep inelastic scattering (DIS) from nuclei reveals how that substructure is modified by the nuclear medium. We have presented a model which successfully explained DIS on 3He in terms of 3, 6, and 9-quark clusters. We have recently improved the model by incorporating more realistic nuclear wave functions to determine the effects of Fermi motion and to evaluate the geometrical overlap probabilities of cluster formation. Furthermore, we have included the contributions of sea quarks which are important for understanding the new data with iron targets. We have also extended the model to obtain a description of the elastic charge form factor of 3He. Here, we summarize the principal ingredients of the model and present illustrative results for DIS. 12 references