Relativity versus exchange currents in 16O(e,e'p)

TL;DR

This study investigates the impact of relativistic corrections and exchange currents on spectroscopic factors in the 16O(e,e'p) reaction, finding that relativistic effects significantly improve the consistency of experimental analyses.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates that relativistic corrections are crucial for resolving discrepancies in spectroscopic factors, surpassing the effects of exchange currents alone.

Findings

Relativistic corrections lead to more consistent spectroscopic factors.

Exchange currents alone are insufficient to explain discrepancies.

Channel coupling significantly influences the results.

Abstract

The 16O(e,e'p) reaction in the quasi-elastic region has been studied in several experiments to determine spectroscopic factors, hence, the degree to which $^{16}$O looks like a closed shell. By varying the kinematics, experimentalists are able to extract response functions which comprise the cross section. However, analysis of the response functions separately produces very different spectroscopic factors. Two calculations led to different conclusions as to whether exchange currents can eliminate the discrepancies. Neither calculation considered relativistic corrections. The purpose of the article is to investigate the disagreement as to whether exchange currents are the solution to obtaining consistent spectroscopic factors, and to show that relativistic corrections have a much greater influence on providing this consistency. This calculation employs the recoil corrected continuum shell model, a model that uses a realistic interaction, and produces non-spurious scatterings states that are solutions to the coupled channels problems. Pionic and pair contributions to the exchange currents were calculated as developed by Dubach, Koch, and Donnelly. Relativistic effects are included by use of the direct Pauli reduction. Contributions of the exchange currents are shown to be insufficient to provide consistent spectroscopic factors. However, the inclusion of relativistic corrections, that can be large, lead to more consistent spectroscopic factors and cross sections. The influence of channel coupling is also shown to be significant. Tests of current conservation show that inclusion of the direct Pauli reduction produces small increases in its violation. Response functions which depend on the transverse current are sensitive to the lower component of relativistic wave functions, and hence, would provide a measure of the appropriateness of any relativistic model.