A Precise Measurement of the Deuteron Elastic Structure Function A(A2)

During summer 1997 experiment 394-018 measured the deuteron tensor polarization in D(e,e'd) scattering in Hall C at Jefferson Laboratory. In a momentum transfer range between 0.66 and 1:8 (GeV=c)2, with slight changes in the experimental setup, the collaboration performed six precision measurements of the deuteron structure function A(Q2) in elastic D(e,e'd) scattering . Scattered electrons and recoil deuterons were detected in coincidence in the High Momentum Spectrometer and the recoil polarimeter POLDER, respectively. At every kinematics H(e,e') data were taken to study systematic effects of the measurement. These new precise measurements resolve discrepancies between older data sets and put significant constraints on existing models of the deuteron electromagnetic structure. This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the Commissariat 'a l'Energie Atomique, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation and the K.C. Wong Foundation