Deuteron electromagnetic properties and the viability of effective field theory methods in the two-nucleon system Original Research Article

The central tenet of effective theory is that the details of short-distance physics will not have a significant impact on low-energy observables. Here we perform an analysis of electron-deuteron scattering at low momentum transfers which is based on effective field theory. We show that in our approach the deuteron electromagnetic form factors FC and FM indeed are largely insensitive to the short-range NN potential at momenta Q up to about 700 MeV. We also find that the effective field theory approach to deuteron electromagnetic structure provides a systematic justification for many features which have been seen in potential model calculations of the same quantities.