THE ROLE OF THE PION CLOUD IN ELECTROPRODUCTION OF THE DELTA(1232)

We calculate the ratios E2/M1 and C2/M1 of the multipole amplitudes fo r electroproduction of the Delta(1232) in the range of photon virtuali ty 0 < -K-2 < 1 GeV2 in a chiral chromodielectric model and a linear s igma-model. We find that relatively large experimental values can be e xplained in terms of the pion contribution alone; the contribution ari sing from d-state quark admixture remains below 10%. We describe the p ion cloud as a coherent state and use spin and isospin projection to o btain the physical nucleon and the Delta. The A(1/2) and A(3/2) amplit udes are reasonably well reproduced in the sigma-model; in the chromod ielectric model, however, they are a factor of two too small.