Relativistic calculation of the deuteron quadrupole and magnetic moments

Abstract

The deuteron quadrupole and magnetic moments are calculated assuming light-front dynamics. The advantage of this approach is that conventional bound-state wave functions and empirical nucleon form factors can be used to construct eigenfunctions of the four-momentum and the spin, together with a representation of the electromagnetic current, in such a way that the current-density operator and the wave functions transform consistently under a unitary representation of the Poincar\'e group. The sensitivity of our model to the choice of the deuteron bound-state wave functions is tested by using Reid soft core, Argonne ${v}_{14}$, Paris, and Nijmegen nucleon-nucleon interactions, as well as three Bonn potentials. The exact results increase both quadrupole and magnetic moments by small amounts compared to the nonrelativistic values. Expansions in powers of the nucleon velocity are found to be unreliable.