Intercomparison of lepton-nucleus scattering models in the quasielastic region

I present a discussion of the models of nuclear effects used to describe the inclusive electron-nucleus scattering in the quasielastic (QE) peak region, aiming to compare them and to draw conclusions about their reliability when applied in neutrino-nucleus interactions. A basic motivation is to reduce the systematic errors in the neutrino oscillation experiments. I concentrate on the neutrino energy profile of the T2K experiment, which provides me with a region of the greatest importance in terms of the highest contribution to the charge-current quasielastic (CCQE) cross section. Only electron-nucleus data that overlap with this region is chosen. In order to clarify the analysis, I split the data sets into three groups and draw conclusions separately from each one of them. Six models are selected for this comparison: Benhar's spectral function with and without the final-state interactions (Benhar's SF + FSI); the Valencia spectral function (Valencia SF), for higher energy transfers only with the hole spectral function; the Giessen Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (GiBUU) model; and the local and global Fermi gas models. The latter two are included as a benchmark to quantify the roles of various nuclear effects. All six models are often used in neutrino scattering studies. A short theoretical description of each model is given. Although in the selected data sets the QE mechanism dominates, I also discuss the possible impact of the 2p2h and the Delta contributions.