Is the Coulomb sum rule violated in nuclei?

Guided by the experimental confirmation of the validity of the Effective Momentum Approximation (EMA) in quasi-elastic scattering off nuclei, we have re-examined the extraction of the longitudinal and transverse response functions in medium-weight and heavy nuclei. In the EMA we have performed a Rosenbluth separation of the available world data on 40Ca, 48Ca, 56Fe, 197Au, 208Pb and 238U. We find that the longitudinal response function for these nuclei is “quenched” and that the Coulomb sum is not saturated, at odds with claims in the literature.