Measurement of the electron‐deuteron elastic scattering cross section in the range 0.8?q2?6 GeV2

We report preliminary results of elastic eD scattering at large momentum transfer performed at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center using two high resolution spectrometers in coincidence. We deduce the deuteron structure function A (q2) at 9 values of q2 from a comparison of elastic eD and eP coincident yields and the world’s eP cross sections. These measurements extend the range of q2 by 4.5 over previous work, and in this new range A (q2) is observed to approach 1/q20 momentum dependence. Our results are in sharp disagreement with the meson exchange calculations, and they are in rough agreement with the nonrelativistic potential models, and they are in agreement with the predictions of the quark dimensional scaling model which pictures the deuteron as a bound state of 6 quarks at large momentum transfer.