QED nuclear medium effects in neutrino-nucleus and electron-nucleus scattering

The exchange of photons with nuclear medium modifies (anti)neutrino and electron scattering cross sections. We study the distortion of (anti)neutrino-nucleus and charged lepton-nucleus cross sections and estimate the QED-medium effects on the final-state kinematics, scattering cross sections, and bremsstrahlung. We find new permille-to-percent level effects, which were never accounted for in either (anti)neutrino-nucleus or electron-nucleus scattering. We quantitatively compute the effects of Glauber photon-mediated multiple re-scattering within the nuclear medium and find that the relativistic charged lepton acquires a momentum of order 10 MeV transverse to its direction of propagation inside the nucleus. This broadening sizably deflects expected electron tracks and suppresses scattering cross sections. Precise extraction of the nucleon and nuclear structure by electron and muon probes should, thus, take the QED nuclear medium angular redistribution of particles into account.