THE LONGITUDINAL ASYMMETRY OF THE (E,E'P) MISSING MOMENTUM DISTRIBUTION AS A SIGNAL OF COLOR TRANSPARENCY

We use multiple scattering theory to evaluate the Q(2) dependence of t he forward-backward asymmetry, A(z), of the missing momentum distribut ion in quasielastic A(e, e(1) p) scattering, which is expected to be a ffected by color transparency. The novel features of our analysis are a consistent treatment of the structure of the ejectile state formed a fter absorption of the virtual photon by the struck proton and a caref ul evaluation of the background asymmetry induced by the nonvanishing real part of the proton-nucleon scattering amplitude. We find that the absolute magnitude of A(z) is dominated by this background at the Q(2 )'s attainable at the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility. H owever, the Q(2) dependence of the asymmetry is sensitive to the onset of color transparency, whose observation in high precision experiment s appears to be feasible, particularly using light targets such as C-1 2 or O-16.