From large scale astrophysical environments to the properties of a nucleus and fundemental attributes of the neutrino, electro-weak interactions play a vital role in many fields of research. Despite their importance, and a dedicated effort within the community to more accurately predict electro-weak interaction rates, theoretical techniques are lagging behind experimental expertise in all but the lightest systems. Models must be used to make calculations more tractable when the system investigated is "large." An accurate description of how a nucleon is modified by the nuclear environment is an essential component to any model. However, a consistent treatment of these short-range correlations is not trivial, and most modern calculations incorporate their effects only through an "effective" Hamiltonian. In describing electroweak interactions, short-range correlations are either ignored entirely or their effects are included as an overall normalization. We have developed consistent and systematic methods to incorporate short range correlations in calculations of response functions using correlated basis theory. I will present recent results for both quasi-elastic electron scattering as well as neutrino scattering. These studies include the dominant one-body electro-weak operators as well as meson-exchange currents which are important in the quasi-elastic region.  (LA-UR-07-0386)

Biography - Dr. Shannon Cowell is a TSM in the Nuclear Theory group at LANL (T-16). She joined T-16 as a postdoctoral fellow after receiving her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Illinois in 2004.