We investigate the role of relativistic and nonrelativistic opticalpotentials used in the analysis of ($e,e'p$) data. We find that therelativistic calculations produce smaller ($e,e'p$) cross sections even in thecase in which both relativistic and nonrelativistic optical potentials fitequally well the elastic proton--nucleus scattering data. Compared to thenonrelativistic impulse approximation, this effect is due to a depletion in thenuclear interior of the relativistic nucleon current, which should be takeninto account in the nonrelativistic treatment by a proper redefinition of theeffective current operator.
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