Construction of spectral functions for medium nuclei

TL;DR

This paper develops approximate spectral functions for medium nuclei like oxygen, calcium, and argon to improve modeling of lepton-nucleus interactions at sub-GeV energies, showing good agreement with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a new method for constructing spectral functions for medium nuclei, enhancing the accuracy of lepton-nucleus interaction models in Monte Carlo simulations.

Findings

Spectral functions for oxygen, calcium, and argon are constructed and validated.

The model shows satisfactory agreement with experimental electron scattering data.

Argon spectral function is suitable for neutrino scattering at 800 MeV.

Abstract

This article is aimed at improving the description of lepton-nucleus interactions in the sub-GeV energy range. Approximate spectral functions for oxygen, calcium, and argon are constructed and used to obtain the electron cross sections in a given scattering angle. Comparison with a sample of available experimental data shows satisfactory agreement. Discrepancy between the presented model and the systematic computations available for oxygen [O. Benhar et al., Phys. Rev. D 72, 053005 (2005)] is also found to be very small. Analysis of appropriate kinematical regions leads to the conclusion that the obtained argon spectral function should describe well neutrino scattering in the 800-MeV energy region. Several approximations used in the model are critically reviewed. All the details needed to implement the presented approach in Monte Carlo simulations are given.