Measurement of recoil proton polarizations in the electrodisintegration of deuterium by polarized electrons

Abstract In order to test modern theories of two-nucleon bound and scattering states, we have measured the spin polarization of ejectile protons in the electrodisintegration reaction d( e → ,e′ p → )n . Compared with spin-averaged observations, these observables offer the potential of enhanced sensitivity to details of the reaction process. The experiment was carried out in quasielastic kinematics ( q μ q μ =−2m p ω=−0.38 GeV 2 /c 2 ). Protons were detected at two angles corresponding to neutron recoil momenta p r of 0 and 100 MeV/c. Full nonrelativistic calculations of the polarization transfer components s l and s t , including leading order relativistic contributions, describe our measurements well, but calculations of the induced polarization s n at p r =100 MeV/c underpredict the experimental result.