Higher-order calculations of electron-deuteron scattering in nuclear effective theory

Abstract

Motivated by recent advances in the application of effective field theory techniques to light nuclei we revisit the problem of electron-deuteron scattering in these approaches. By sidestepping problems with the description of electron-nucleon scattering data in effective field theories, we show that the effective theory expansion for deuteron physics converges well over a wide range of momentum transfers. The resultant description of the physics of the two-nucleon system is good up to virtual photon momenta of order 700 MeV.