Magnetic Moment of the Deuteron

Abstract

A contribution to the deuteron magnetic moment which results from the altered expectation values of nucleon core spins in the bound state is calculated. The adiabatic approximation, in which the $\pi$-meson clouds of a static-nucleon model are assumed to follow the orbital motion of the sources, is used. The two-nucleon states are expanded in Heitler-London states; the expectation value of the deuteron magnetic moment operator is related to single-nucleon matrix elements by means of an expansion corresponding to exchange of various numbers of mesons between the nucleons. The single-nucleon matrix elements are evaluated using the Chew-Low-Wick fixed-source theory. If an orbital wave function with a relatively large $D$-state probability is used, the one-meson exchange terms give an increase in the deuteron magnetic moment of about one percent. The two-meson exchange terms are considerably smaller than the one-meson exchange terms.