Spectral Functions and Nuclear Response

TL;DR

This paper explores the connection between nuclear response functions and Green functions, deriving spectral function expressions rigorously and analyzing recent electron-nucleus scattering results within this framework.

Contribution

It provides a rigorous derivation of spectral function expressions from Green functions and applies this formalism to analyze electron-nucleus scattering data.

Findings

Spectral functions can be derived consistently from Green functions.

The formalism is applied to inclusive electron-nucleus cross sections.

Results support the validity of the impulse approximation in this context.

Abstract

I discuss the relation between the nuclear response and the Green function describing the propagation of a nucleon in the nuclear medium. Within this formalism, the widely used expressions in terms of spectral functions can be derived in a consistent and rigorous fashion. The results of recent applications to the study of the inclusive electron-nucleus cross section in the impulse approximation regime are brielfy analyzed.