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Chapter 1IntroductionEver since the discovery of the atomic nucleus by Rutherford in the early 20th century, nucleiand their constituent particles have been the subject of a great deal of scientific research. Theinterest in nuclear physics stems from the fact that the nucleus is a unique form of matter,consisting of many protons and neutrons in close proximity. As such, the nucleus providesa microscopic laboratory to study different forces of nature: the strong, electromagnetic, andweak interaction. Moreover, nuclear matter accounts for more than 99.9% of the mass in thevisible universe. Consequently, nuclear physics plays a crucial role in the understanding of ourworld, from the infinitesimal to the astronomical. Finally, there are many practical applicationsof nuclear physics, in energy production, medical diagnosis and treatments, to name a few.A powerful tool to extract information about nuclear structure and the properties of boundnucleons is the scattering of leptonic or hadronic probes from nuclei. The advantages of usingleptons as probes arise from the fact that they interact weakly with the nucleus. This enables theleptons to probe the entire nuclear volume without significantly disturbing the target object. Italso means that the electroweak interaction can be treated perturbatively. Leptonic scattering,however, has the disadvantage that the cross sections are much smaller than those for purelyhadronic reactions. Thus, hadronic scattering has a large “discovery” potential, whereas leptonicreactions are used for precision experiments. Hadronic scattering is more challengingtheoretically because of the strong interaction with nuclear matter. Moreover, hadronic probesmostly sample the nuclear surface.Quasielastic Scattering and the A(p, pN) ReactionThe main focus of this work will be on exclusive proton-nucleus scattering in the quasielasticregion. In the scattering spectrum of a hadronic probe from the nucleus, the quasielastic regionappears as a wide peak at ω ≈ Q 2 /2M N , with (ω, ⃗q) the energy and momentum transfer, Q 2 =|⃗q| 2 − ω 2 , and M N the nucleon mass. One expects that in this region, the probe induces theknockout of a single nucleon. In exclusive measurements, the ejectile and the knocked-outnucleon are detected in coincidence and, hence, more detailed information about the reaction1