Measurements of the deuteron elastic structure function

The deuteron elastic structure function A(Q2) has been extracted in the range of 0.7 (le) Q2 (le) 6.0 (GeV/c)2 from cross section measurements of elastic electron-deuteron in coincidence. Measurements of the elastic deuteron electromagnetic form factors offer unique opportunities to test models of short-range aspects of the nucleon-nucleon interaction, meson-exchange currents, isobaric configurations and, quark degrees of freedom. The elastic electron-deuteron cross section is given by dσ/d(Omega) = σM[A(Q2) + B(Q2) tan2(θ/2)] where θ is the electron scattering angle, σM = α2E(prime) cos2 (θ/2)/[4E3 sin4(θ/2)] is the Mott cross section, α is the fine-structure constant, E and E(prime) are the incident and scattered electron energies and Q2 = 4EE(prime) sin2(θ/2) is the four momentum transfer squared. The deuteron elastic structure functions A(Q 2) and B(Q2) are given in terms of the charge, quadrupole and magnetic form factors Fc(Q2), F1(Q2) and Fm(Q2) by A(Q2) = Fc2(Q2) + (8/9)τ2 F12(Q2) + (2/3)τFm2(Q2) and B(Q2) = (4/3)τ(1+τ)Fm2(Q2) and to resolve inconsistencies in previous data sets by measuring elastic electron-deuteron (e-d) cross sections for 0.7 (le) Q2 (le) 6.0 (GeV/c)2