RELATIVISTIC QCD VIEW OF THE DEUTERON

The length scales for QCD and for nuclear physics are about the same, both about 1 fermi, and this directly motivates a search for a QCD exp lanation of nuclear phenomena, beginning with the deuteron. We first r eview the theoretical tools and results relevant to nuclear QCD, and t hen discuss data for several reactions. In particular, the remarkable data on deuteron photodisintegration agree with the naive perturbative QCD predictions for their scaling behavior and disagree with predicti ons from traditional approaches. This may be the first distinctive sig nature wherein considering the quark substructure in a nucleus is cruc ial in explaining some phenomenon.