Nuclear structure functions and off-shell corrections

The $n$-th moments of the nuclear structure function $F_2^A(x,Q^2)$ are analyzed using the off-shell kinematics appropriate to describe deep inelastic electron-nucleus scattering within the impulse approximation. It is shown that off-shell effects are sensitive to the form of both the nuclear spectral function and the nucleon structure function $F_2^N(x,Q^2)$, and can be as large as $\sim 10%$ at Q$^2~\sim~2$~(GeV/c)$^2$.