Effects of nucleon-nucleon short-range correlations on inclusive electron scattering

The nucleon-nucleon short-range correlation NN-SRC is one of the key issues of nuclear physics, which typically manifest themselves in high-momentum components of the nuclear momentum distributions. In this letter, the nuclear spectral functions based on the axially deformed relativistic mean-field model are developed to involve the NN-SRC. With the spectral functions, the inclusive electron scattering $(e,e^{\prime})$ cross sections are calculated within the PWIA framework, including the quasi-elastic (QE) part and $\Delta$ production part. Especially in the $\Delta$ production region, we reconsider the electromagnetic structures of the nucleon resonance $\Delta$(1232) and the scattering mechanisms, thereby the theoretical calculations are improved effectively and the cross sections are well consistent with the experimental data. The theoretical $(e,e^{\prime})$ cross sections are further divided into NN-SRC and mean-field contributions. It is found that, at the kinematics $0.5 \,{\rm GeV}^{2}<Q^{2}<1 \,{\rm GeV}^{2}$, the QE peak and $\Delta$ production peak not only reflect the mean-field structure, but also are sensitive to the NN-SRC information. Finally, we provide a new method to extract the strengths of NN-SRC from experimental cross sections for selected nuclei at the suitable kinematics.