Inelastic Electron and Proton Scattering from Nuclei

The relation between the inelastic scattering of high-energy electrons and impulse-approximation scattering of protons from light nuclei was investigated for the excitation of collective levels described in a shell-model picture. A search code was developed to find best-fit form factors for the electron scattering to define the nuclear transition density for proton scattering. Calculations were performed for the first $2^{+}$ and $3^{-}$ levels of ${}_{}{}^{12}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{C}$. The data for the two types of probe were found to be consistent as regards enhancement and angular distribution for both transitions. The sensitivity of the comparison was tested by expressing the proton interaction in terms of three different sets of nucleon-nucleon phase shifts. The available data did not allow a choice of a preferred phase-shift set.