Color transparency in semi-inclusive electroproduction of ρ mesons

We study the electroproduction of ρ mesons in nuclei at intermediate energies, deriving a treatment of the energy lost by the ρ in each step of multiple scattering. This enables a close match between calculations and the experimental kinematic conditions. A standard Glauber calculation is presented, and then the effects of color-transparency are included. The influence of poor experimental resolution on the extracted transparency is assessed. The effects of ρ meson decay inside the nucleus are examined, and are typically about 5% at most. This effect disappears rapidly as Q2 increases from about 1 to 3 GeV2, causing a rise in the transparency that is not attributable to color transparency. The size of color transparency effects for C and Fe nuclei is studied for values of Q2 up to 10 GeV2. The detailed results depend strongly on the assumed value of the ρN cross section. The overall effects of color transparency are greater than about 10% for both nuclear targets if Q2 is greater than about 5 GeV2.