Nuclear response in electromagnetic quasi-free knockout including two-body currents

The nuclear response is considered for the outgoing nucleon knocked out in quasi-free scattering with polarized electrons. In the framework of the one-photon exchange approximation, the resulting five structure functions are calculated with an electromagnetic current of the target nucleus which includes two-body contributions coming from meson-exchange currents and isobar configurations in intermediate nuclear states. Specific calculations are presented for both proton and neutron knockout in the case of a 16O target nucleus. The sensitivity to final state interactions, mesonic effects and isobaric configurations is discussed. (orig.)