Field-theoretical description of the deuteron breakup in the clothed particle representation

TL;DR

This paper develops a fully relativistic, gauge-independent field-theoretical framework for deuteron electrodisintegration, incorporating meson-exchange currents and final-state interactions, and compares results with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach combining the Lehmann-Symanzik-Zimmermann formalism with clothed particle representation, generating consistent electromagnetic currents and nucleon-nucleon interactions.

Findings

Computed differential cross sections and polarization observables agree with experimental data.

Relativistic effects and meson-exchange currents significantly influence the reaction outcomes.

The framework provides a unified treatment of one- and two-body currents in deuteron breakup.

Abstract

We present a field-theoretical description of the deuteron electrodisintegration reaction d(e,e'p)n induced by unpolarized and polarized electrons. The approach combines the Lehmann-Symanzik-Zimmermann in(out) formalism with the clothed particle representation in the instant form of relativistic dynamics, providing a fully relativistic and gauge-independent framework based on the Fock-Weyl criterion. Within the method of unitary clothing transformations, one and the same transformation that generates the relativistic nucleon-nucleon interaction (the Kharkiv potential) also induces a fresh family of electromagnetic current operators. As a result, one-body and two-body (meson-exchange) currents emerge on a common footing. We compute differential cross sections and polarization observables with the inclusion of final-state interaction effects and meson-exchange current contributions, and compare the results with Saclay and Jefferson Lab data as well as with earlier theoretical predictions. The role of relativistic ingredients (one- and two-body currents, Fermi-motion effects, etc.) and the interplay between them are analyzed in several kinematic regimes of the experiments at Saclay and Jefferson Lab.