The Coulomb Sum Rule in Nuclei

Since the discovery of the EMC effect, where it was observed that the quark longitudinal momentum distributions in a nucleus are different from those of free nucleons, there has been a long standing question in nuclear physics as to how the structure of a free nucleon might change when bound in a nucleus or embedded in a nuclear medium. One of the cleanest expected signatures of in-medium modification can be achieved by testing the Coulomb Sum Rule through quasi-elastic electron scattering; where one counts the expected total nuclear charge by integrating the longitudinal response function of the nucleus and comparing it to the incoherent sum of electric form factors of the constituent nucleons. Standard nuclear effects that quench the charge response of the nucleus are well understood, leaving any additional quenching to be interpreted as a signature of modification of these form factors in-medium. Preliminary results from a recent analysis of inclusive electron scattering from Carbon and Iron targets at Jefferson Lab will be presented.