Deuteron Form Factor and the Short-Distance Behavior of the Nuclear Force

Abstract

The large-${q}^{2}$ falloff of the elastic deuteron form factor is used to relate meson exchange to underlying quark currents, to relate the deuteron form factor to large-angle $n\ensuremath{-}p$ scattering, to demonstrate scale-invariant behavior of the nucleon-nucleon potential, and to determine the deuteron wave function at small $n\ensuremath{-}p$ separation.