Coulomb distortion effects in ( e , e prime. gamma. ) processes

Using Coulomb distorted waves for the electron wave functions, we investigate ({ital e},{ital e}{prime}{gamma}) processes where the nucleus is excited by inelastic electron scattering and the subsequent decay photon is detected in coincidence with the scattered electron with the nonavoidable bremsstrahlung process which must be coherently included. We examine the effects of Coulomb distortion on the resulting cross sections and compare our results with plane-wave analyses and with previous approximate calculations. In addition to examining other calculations, we compare our results with the available data and discuss the possibilities of using this reaction to determine multipole admixtures and extracting transition charge and current distributions for medium and heavy nuclei.