Deuteron threshold electrodisintegration at high momentum transfer

Absolute differential cross sections for the threshold electrodisintegration of the deuteron with good resolution were measured at a laboratory scattering angle of 160° for five values of Q² ranging from 8.66 to 42.4 fm^-2. Comparisons of the data averaged over E_np from 0 to 3 MeV and from 0 to10 MeV are made with nonrelativistic meson exchange calculations. These calculations are sensitive to the nucleon electromagnetic form factors, nucleon-nucleon potential, and relativistic effects. The data are also compared with a hybrid quark-hadron model calculation that describes the deuteron as a six-quark cluster for the short range part of the interaction. Some of these calculations can describe the data reasonably well over certain ranges of Q²; however, none of these calculations can accurately describe the data over the entire measured Q² range.