Distinctive Signatures for Quantum Chromodynamics in Nuclear Physics

Abstract

For individual helicity amplitudes, asymptotic QCD gives results which differ from standard nuclear physics. For the deuteron electromagnetic form factors, QCD predicts $G_C=\left(\frac{Q^2}{6M_d^2}\right)G_Q$ at high $Q^2$. This gives a result for the polarization ratio $\frac{p_x}{p_{\mathrm{xz}}}$ which is dramatically different from predictions of several standard deuteron wave functions. Polarization-transfer measurements of the deuteron form factor in this $Q^2$ region are therefore a sensitive test of the validity of perturbative QCD for exclusive processes at these momentum transfers.