Thursday, February 19, 2026
4:00 pm-5:00 pm
Experimentally Unveiling the Tensor Structure of Deuterium
The deuteron, the lightest spin-1 nucleus, is a weakly bound system of two spin-1/2 nucleons whose internal structure reflects rich and uniquely accessible dynamics of quarks and gluons in nuclei. Its tensor-polarized structure provides information that cannot be inferred from the proton and neutron alone and offers a powerful window into the role of spin, orbital motion, and short-range dynamics in nuclear systems. Despite decades of study, key aspects of this structure remain unmeasured, and a complete 3D description of the deuteron is still out of reach.
In this talk, I will outline a new experimental program designed to address these open questions through two complementary approaches. The first is a proposed exclusive quasielastic (e,e′p) measurement on tensor-polarized deuterium, which directly probes the deuteron’s breakup channels and the dynamics of short-range configurations with unprecedented clarity. The second is a measurement of spin-1 Transverse Momentum Distributions (TMDs) using a tensor-polarized deuteron target, aimed at revealing the momentum and spin correlations of quarks and gluons in a spin-1 bound state. Together, these measurements offer a unique path toward mapping the multidimensional structure of the deuteron and advancing our understanding of how quarks and gluons form and bind the simplest nucleus.
