Precision Extraction of the Deuteron Electric Polarizability via the Baldin Sum Rule with Full Low-Energy Coverage

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The photodisintegration cross sections of the deuteron have been systematically measured over the photon energy range of 2.33-19.65 MeV at the Shanghai Laser Electron Gamma Source. By applying the well-established Baldin sum rule to the newly obtained data, the sum of the electric and magnetic dipole polarizabilities of the deuteron is extracted for the first time based solely on a dense and continuous experimental dataset, yielding α_{E}+β_{M}=0.719±0.009_{stat}±0.014_{algo}±0.023_{syst} fm^{3}. With theoretical values of the magnetic polarizability β_{M} calculated from the pionless effective field theory, a new value of the electric polarizability is obtained as α_{E}=0.637±0.009_{stat}±0.014_{algo}±0.023_{syst}±0.004_{theo} fm^{3}, which is in excellent agreement with current theoretical predictions. This result resolves the previous discrepancy between experimental measurements from elastic scattering and theory, providing a high-precision benchmark for nuclear interaction models.

Source: Physical Review Letters

DOI: 10.1103/xmmq-gnvq

Institutions: Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Taiwan University, University of Washington, Fudan University, East China Normal University

Language: English

Topic: Nuclear physics research studies

Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key Research and Development Program of China

Awards: G3942867700, G7632098871, G7968627915, G8631028306

OpenAlex ID: W7155552263