Electromagnetic processes in few-body systems

Abstract

Electromagnetic processes induced by electron scattering off few-nucleon systems are theoretically investigated in the non-relativistic formalism. Non-relativistic one-body nuclear current operators are used with a parametrization of nucleon electromagnetic form factors based on recent experimental nucleon scattering data. Electromagnetic form factors of three-nucleon and four-nucleon systems are calculated from elastic electron-nucleus scattering information. Nuclear response functions used in the determination of differential cross sections for inclusive and exclusive quasi-elastic electron-nucleon scattering from the 4He nucleus are also calculated. Final-state interactions in the quasi-elastic nucleon knockout process are explicitly taken into account using the Glauber approximation. The sensitivity of the response functions to the final-state interactions is investigated. The Antisymmetrized Molecular Dynamics approach with angular momentum and parity projection is employed to construct ground state wave functions for the nuclei. A reduced form of the realistic Argonne V18 nucleon-nucleon potential is used to describe nuclear Hamiltonian. A convenient numerical technique of approximating expectation values of nuclear Hamiltonian operators is employed. The constructed wave functions are used to calculate ground-state energies, root-mean-square radii and magnetic dipole moments of selected light nuclei. The theoretical predictions of the nuclear properties for the selected nuclei give a satisfactory description of experimental values. The Glauber approximation is combined with the Antisymmetrized Molecular Dynamics to generate wave functions for scattering states in quasi-elastic scattering processes. The wave functions are then used to study proton knockout reactions in the 4He nucleus. The theoretical predictions of the model reproduce experimental observation quite well.