Measurement of the elastic electron deuteron cross-section and determination of the electric form factor in the region of low Q²
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Abstract
The electromagnetic form factors of light nuclei provide a sensitive test of our understanding of nuclei. The deuteron charge radius is a favorite observable to compare experiment and theory. An extensive measurement campaign has been performed at Mainz Microtron to determine the deuteron charge radius using elastic electron scattering. The experiment took place at the 3-spectrometer facility of the A1-collaboration. The handling of the background originating from electrons which were scattered at the walls of the target cell is a critical objective. Since the tail of the distribution of these electrons is located beneath the elastic deuteron peak it has to be removed as effectively as possible from the rest of the data. Based on the data of the cross section measurements, the charge form factor was determined by fitting the measured cross sections with a Sum-of-Gaussians parametrization. From the fit to the form factor, the radius can be determined from the slope at zero momentum transfer. The obtained value for the deuteron radius is in agreement with most of the values from previous measurements, but at the same time exhibits a tendency to a smaller value in comparison to the other results.