Spectral function and relativistic mean-field description of (un)polarized (e,e'p) reactions: a consistent picture

We analyze the unpolarized and polarized electron-induced proton-knockout reactions on $O^{16}$ in different kinematical settings using two theoretical approaches. The first one is based on a relativistic mean-field distorted-wave description of the bound and scattering states of the proton, including a fully relativistic electromagnetic current operator. The second approach adopts the same current operator, but describes the proton properties consistently on the basis of microscopic calculations of the self-energy in $O^{16}$ below the Fermi energy and final-state damping in nuclear matter above the Fermi energy, using the same realistic short-range and tensor correlations. Good agreement with all unpolarized and polarized data is obtained at low and high $Q^2$ by using the same spectroscopic factors fixed by the low-$Q^2$ analysis, indicating that a high degree of internal consistency has been reached.