Effects of spinor distortion and density-dependent form factors upon quasifree ¹⁶O(e⃗,e^′p⃗)

We propose an effective current operator for nucleon electromagnetic knockout that incorporates spinor distortion and density-dependent nucleon form factors using an effective momentum approximation. This method can be used in a coordinate-space approach with either relativistic or nonrelativistic optical potentials and overlap functions. We studied these effects for the ¹⁶O(e⃗,e^′p⃗) reaction at Q²=0.8 (GeV/c)². Spinor distortion substantially enhances the left-right asymmetry while reducing the ratio between sideways and longitudinal recoil polarization for p-shell knockout by about 5% for modest missing momenta. We also find that the density dependence of nucleon form factors suggested by a quark-meson coupling model reduces the polarization ratio further. Much larger effects are obtained for the s shell than for the p shell. However, both effects are subject to much larger Gordon ambiguities than comparable nonrelativistic calculations.