The effect of meson exchange on the forward cross section for d(γ,p)n

We have investigated the effect of meson exchange on the theoretical calculation of the cross section for the photodisintegration of the deuteron in the forward direction, in the hope of reducing the present large discrepancy between theory and experiment. Two recent papers reporting a significant reduction in the discrepancy were found to have a sign error; when pseudoscalar πNN coupling is used the effect of one-pion exchange is to increase the discrepancy. We have calculated the one-pion and two-pion exchange effects on the E1 transitions using pseudovector πNN coupling and the resulting correction is small and in the right direction. Thus, assuming the reliability of both theory and experiment, our calculation provides a strong argument in favour of using PV rather than PS πNN coupling in calculating meson exchange effects in nuclear processes. We have found that the effect of the exchange of rho- and ω-mesons is very small. Meson exchange effects change the normalization of the deuteron wave function and cause a further small reduction in the calculated cross section. Since the corrections to the M1 transitions are expected to be very small, it seems unlikely that meson exchange effects can account for the discrepancy between theory and experiment. (orig.)