We investigate the degree to which the concept of superscaling, initially developed within the framework of the relativistic Fermi gas model, applies to inclusive electron scattering from nuclei. We find that data obtained from the low-energy loss side of the quasielastic peak exhibit the superscaling property; i.e., the scaling functions $f\left({\psi }^{\prime }\right)$ are not only independent of momentum transfer (the usual type of scaling: scaling of the first kind), but coincide for $A>~4$ when plotted versus a dimensionless scaling variable ${\psi }^{\prime }$ (scaling of the second kind). We use this behavior to study the as yet poorly understood properties of the inclusive response at large electron energy loss.

• Received 28 May 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.60.065502