Can a Highly Virtual Nucleon Experience Final State Interactions in Electron-Nucleus Scattering?

We discuss how the virtuality of the struck particle may affect the final state interactions in electron-nucleus scattering. The extent to which short range correlations inhibit rescattering taking place within the range of the repulsive core of the NN interaction is quantitatively analyzed. The possible modifications of the nucleon-nucleon scattering amplitude associated with the virtuality is also studied, within the framework of a nonrelativistic model. The results suggest that the on shell approximation can be safely employed in the kinematical region relevant to the analysis of the available inclusive data at large momentum transfer and low energy loss.