Front-form calculations of exchange currents in elastic electron-deuteron scattering

Electron-deuteron scattering is an ideal tool for studying nuclear structure and nuclear forces. The elastic deuteron current matrix elements have been calculated using a Poincaré invariant quantum model with a light-front kinematic symmetry. The impulse approximation violates the Poincarécovariance and current conservation for the interacting system and two-body currents are required to satisfy these constraints. A model two-body current that has a structure motivated by "pair'' currents was constructed in this work. It appears naturally in quantum field theory. The Argonne V18 potential was used as the model nucleon-nucleon interaction and empirical nucleon form factors were used as input in the calculation of the deuteron form factors and structure functions. The sensitivity of the results to different nucleon-nucleon interactions, different nucleon form factors, and different choices of independent current matrix elements was examined. The calculations of elastic electron-deuteron scattering observables in this work are consistent with experiment to within uncertainties in the input.