Quasielastic and inelastic inclusive electron scattering by nuclear systems: Nucleon momentum distributions, spectral functions, and off-shell effects

Inclusive quasielastic and inelastic scattering from nuclei and nuclear matter is analyzed within the plane wave impulse approximation. Theoretical results obtained using model spectral functions including the effects from nucleon-nucleon correlations are presented and compared with results obtained with realistic many-body model spectral functions for ${}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{He}$ and nuclear matter. The sensitivity of quasielastic and inelastic nuclear structure functions to different prescriptions for the off-shell behavior of nucleons is investigated in both the xx>1 kinematic regions. Results indicate that the inelastic scattering in the x>1 region will only be important at momentum transfers above 8 (GeV/c${)}^2$.