Quenching of the analyzing power for inclusive quasielastic (p→,p') scattering

Within the context of a nonrelativistic semiclassical distorted wave (SCDW) model, we demonstrate that the experimentally observed reduction of the inclusive quasielastic Pb208(p→,p') analyzing power relative to the value for free NN scattering, at incident laboratory kinetic energies of 290 and 200 MeV and at the centroid of the quasielastic peak, is mainly attributed to nuclear medium modifications of the NN effective interaction and also nuclear distortion effects on the scattering wave functions. In addition, the SCDW model also provides a satisfactory quantitative description of the unpolarized double differential cross section.