Quark correlations and deuteron electromagnetic form factors - art. no. 015202

The recent preliminary values of A(Q(2)) and t(20)(70 degrees) elastic elec tron-scattering data extracted from deuterium at larger values of Q(2) have placed more stringent constraints on models of the nucleon-nucleon system. Comparisons of the data with conventional hadronic models and with perturb ative QCD have been made, and are strongly in favor of the hadronic picture provided isoscalar meson exchange currents are included. In this work a no nperturbative quark model of the deuteron with parameters determined from e arlier work is used to investigate the role of quark correlations in descri bing the deuteron electromagnetic form factors. The results give a good des cription of the recent data and show that this model with many-body confine ment has quark correlation contributions to the charge form factors which a re remarkably similar to the meson exchange current contributions.