Volume 8 Number 0107 ISSN 1979-3898

Journal of
Theoretical and Computational
Studies

On the Root Mean Square Radius of the Deuteron

A. M. Y. Mustafa, A. A. Ibraheem, E. Moustafa, E. Hashem
J. Theor. Comput. Stud. 8 (2009) 0107
Received: May 13th , 2009; Accepted for publication: August 30th , 2009

Published by
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° ISSN 1979-3898
J. Theor. Comput. Stud. Volume 8 (2009) 0107

On the Root Mean Square Radius of the Deuteron

A. M. Yasser Mustafaa , Awad A. Ibraheemb , Elsayed Moustafab and Essam Hashemb
a)
Physics Dept., Faculty of Science, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt
b)
Physics Dept., Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, P.O 71524, Assuit, Egypt

Abstract : A new experimental value of the deuteron root mean square radius rd = 1.9566 ± 0.0019 fm has
extracted. Neutron electric form factor Gn 2 2
E (q ) has calculated as a function of the momentum transfer q for fifty-three
n 2
nucleon-nucleon local potential models. It has found that GE (q ) is a model dependent.
Keywords : deuteron, form factor, ed scattering, root mean square radius
E-mail : yasserm2007@gmail.com , awad ah eb@hotmail.com

Received: May 13th , 2009; Accepted for publication: August 30th , 2009

1 INTRODUCTION low momentum transfer in terms of the (rms) radius

rd appears to be simple and clean. The theoretical
calculations of the (rms) radius rd are particularly re-
Deuteron consists of a proton and a neutron; it is
liable as the calculation is largely independent of the
the only bound two nucleon system and is the light-
particular nucleon-nucleon potential used. Many au-
est of all composite nuclei. The deuteron also is
thors [1]-[8] paid special attention to deuteron observ-
one of the fundamental systems of nuclear physics.
ables, the observable (rms) radius rd , charge radius
Many studies, experimental and theoretical, have de-
rch and the related but unobservable (rms) matter
voted to it. One of the particular interests is the
radius rm . The main goal of this work is to introduce
degree to which the deuteron can be understood as
a new method to extract a new experimental value of
a system of two structures less nucleons interacting
the deuteron (rms) radius rd by using fifty-three N-N
via the nucleon-nucleon force. Deuteron properties
potential models.
are quantities of fundamental importance in nuclear
physics. For example, electromagnetic properties are
crucial tests of the theory of electromagnetic currents.
When addressing the electromagnetic properties of
the deuteron, the corresponding question concerns
the ability to predict the three deuteron form factors
starting from the calculated deuteron wave function
and the nucleon form factors known from electron-
nucleon scattering. At very low momentum transfer q 2 DEUTERON FORM FACTORS
one would hope to be able to predict the electromag-
netic properties. The form factors at very low q are
dominated by the parts of the deuteron wave function
where the two nucleons are far apart. For this case The elastic scattering of electrons by deuterons is
the electromagnetic properties of the deuteron should fully described by there form factors of the deuteron
be determined by the known N-N interaction and the and the measurements of the elastic electron-deuteron
known nucleon form factors. This is true in particular scattering lead to the deuteron form factor as a func-
for the quantity relevant at extremely low momentum tion of the momentum transfer to the deuteron (q).
transfer, the deuteron root mean square (rms) radius Electromagnetic processes on the deuteron described
rd which is the quantity of main interest to this paper. by measurement of the deuteron form factor. These
For these reasons, the deuteron rd has been a favorite form factors are necessary to study the structure of
observable used to compare experiment and calcula- the deuteron. The deuteron electric form factor can
tion. The interpretation of the experimental data at be written as[9]

c 2009 GFTI & MKI

° 0107-1
2 On the Root Mean Square Radius...

for small momentum transfers q is proportional to

the deuteron quadrupole moment QD [16, 17]. The
GdE (q 2 ) = {GpE (q 2 ) + GnE (q 2 )} deuteron root mean square radius rd can be derived
2
×{CE (q 2 ) + CQ
2
(q 2 )}1/2 from the deuteron wave function and may be written
as [1, 2, 14]
×(1 + τ )−1/2
≈ {GpE (q 2 ) + GnE (q 2 )} Z ∞
r 1
×CE (q 2 )(1 + τ )−1/2 rd2 = h( )2 i = [u2 (r) + w2 (r)]r2 dr (7)
2 4 0
; CE (q 2 ) ÂÂ CQ (q 2 )
(1) where h( 2r )2 iis the expectation value of ( 2r )2 .

where τ = q 2 /4m2p ; mp is the proton mass, GpE is the 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
proton electric form factor. It is given by [10]
3.1 The Neutron Electric Form Factor GnE
0.312 1.312 0.709 0.085 Fifty-three local nucleon-nucleon potential models
GpE (q 2 ) = q2
+ q2
− q2
+ q2
1+ 6 1+ 15.02 1+ 44.08 1+ 154.2
have been used to calculate GnE by using Eq. (3). The
(2) experimental data of the ratio R(q 2 ) has taken from
GnE is the neutron electric form factor. It is given Simon et al [18]. GpE (q 2 ) has been calculated by us-
by [9] ing Eq. (2). The radial wave functions u(r) and w(r)
have been used, for every one of the potential models,
to calculate the deuteron charge and quadrupole form
1 + q 2 /(4m2p ) 1/2 factors. The integrals of Eqs. (6-7) have been carried
GnE (q 2 ) = {R(q 2 ){ 2 (q 2 ) + C 2 (q 2 ) } − 1}
CE Q out numerically by using the Simpson’s integral rule.
×GpE (q 2 ) The references of the fifty-three potential models used
in this work are; GK1, GK2, GK9 of Glendenning and
R(q 2 ) 2 2 1/2
≈{ 2 (q 2 ) {1 + q /(4mp )} − 1} Kramer [19], PARIS of Lacomb et al. [20], RHC, RSC,
CE RSCA of Reid [21], TSA, TSB and TSC of de Tour-
×GpE (q 2 ) reil and Sprung[22], HJ of Hamada and Johnston [23],
, CE (q 2 ) ÂÂ CQ (q 2 ) TRS of de Tourreil et al. [24], L1, L2,1, 2, 3, , 6
of Mustafa [25], r1, r2, , r7 of Mustafa et al. [26],
(3)
MHKZ of Mustafa et al. [27], a, b, c, , i of Mustafa
where, R(q 2 ) is the ratio of the deuteron GdE to the [28], Reid93, Nijm93, NijmI and NijmII of Stoks et
proton form factor GpE . Other expressions for GnE (q 2 ) al [29], MACHA, MACHB, MACHC of Machledit et
are found in [11, 12, 13]. The value of the first deriva- al [30], BonnF, BonnQ of Machledit et al [31], MZ of
tive of GnE (q 2 ) with respect to q 2 at q 2 = 0 is called Mustafa and Zahran [32] and A, B of Mustafa [33] .
b, where All the fifty-three potential models have different val-
ues of the deuteron (rms) radius rd property, i.e., each
dGnE (q 2 ) potential model has a value for rd which is different
b= |q 2 = 0 (4) from the values of rd of the other potential models. In
dq 2
other words, the values of rd property are not equal
Finally, CE (q 2 ) and CQ (q 2 ) are the deuteron charge
but have wide range of values in all potential models.
and quadrupole form factors. It is given by [14, 15]
The variation of the neutron form factor GnE (q 2 ) for
Z ∞ ten potential models has drawn in Figure 1 and Figure
qr
CE (q 2 ) = [u2 (r) + w2 (r)]j0 ( )dr (5) 2. It is obvious of these figures that GnE (q 2 ) can be
0 2
used to distinguish between the competing potential
Z models. It is obvious too that GnE (q 2 ) is a model de-
∞
ω 2 (r) qr pendent and its values depending on the value of the
CQ (q 2 ) = 2 [u(r).w(r) − √ ]j2 ( )dr (6)
0 8 2 deuteron root mean square radius rd .

where u(r) and w(r) are the s- and d- radial wave

functions of the deuteron; r is the distance between
both the proton and the neutron. j0 and j2 are
the Bessel functions of order 0 and 2 respectively.
The slope of the deuteron quadrupole form factor
3.2 Extracting an Experimental Value of rd
A new relation between b, the slope of the neutron
form factor GnE (q 2 ) at q 2 = 0, and rd2 , the square of
the deuteron root mean square radius has been found

0107-2
3 On the Root Mean Square Radius...

n = 4
fm
2

PARIS
b ( )

0. 04
04
0.

NijmI

0. 03 RSC
(q )
2

MHKZ
n

03
E

0.
G

0. 02 GK1

02
0.

0. 01

0. 00 01
0.

0 1 2 3 4
3.8 3.9 2 2 4.0
2 -2 rD (fm )
q (fm )

Figure 3: The relation between b and rd2 for the fifty-

Figure 1: The variation of neutron form factor
three local potential models (each circle represnts one of
Gn 2
E (q ) versus the momentum transfer q (fm
−1
) for
the potential models used).
some potential models.

08
0. BonnF
by using the fifty-three local potential models. For
TSC
each model, the value of b has been extracted by fit-
ting the relation between GnE (q 2 ) and q 2 for a poly-
nomial of order n = 1, 2, 3 and 4. The value of b
06
0. corresponds toP the coefficient b1 of q 2 of the polyno-
4
mial GnE (q 2 )= n=1 bn q 2n . The best fit has found
1 for a polynomial of degree n = 4. A first order re-
lation between b (for n = 4) and rd2 has found. The
relation between b and rd2 has drawn in Figure 3 for
(q )

r1
2

04
0.
the fifty-three potential models. To extract an exper-
n
E

imental value of rd , the relation between b and rd2 has

G

Raid 93

been fitted by using a straight line fitting, we sub-

stitute with the experimental value of b = 0.0199 ±
0.0003 fm2 of Koester et al [34]. The extracted value
02
0.
of the deuteron root mean square radius is rd = 1.9566
± 0.0019 fm. This value has a small error and it is
consistent with the experimental values rd = 1.9635
± 0.0045 [9], 1.952 ± 0.004 [35] and 1.9546 ± 0.0021
00
0.
[27].
0 1 2 3 4
2 -2
q (fm )
4 CONCLUSION

Figure 2: . The variation of neutron form factor The deuteron root mean square radius is an impor-
Gn 2
E (q ) versus the momentum transfer q (fm
−1
) for
tant observable. It depends on the slope of the neu-
some potential models.
tron form factor GnE (q 2 ) at q 2 = 0. Fifty-three local

0107-3
4 On the Root Mean Square Radius...

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and E. M. Zahran, Phys. Rev. C45, (1992) 2603.
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0107-4