Spin-1 hadrons have additional structure functions not present for spin 1/2 hadrons. These could probe novel aspects of hadron structure and QCD dynamics. For the deuteron, the tensor structure function $b_1$ inherently mixes quark and nuclear degrees of freedom. These proceedings discuss two standard convolution models applied to calculations of the deuteron $b_1$ structure functions. We find large differences with the existing HERMES data and other convolution model calculations. This leaves room for non-standard contributions to $b_1$ in the deuteron. We also discuss the influence of higher twist nuclear effects in the model calculations and data extraction at kinematics covered in HERMES and Jefferson Lab.
There are polarized structure functions $b_{1-4}$ for the spin-1 deuteron. We calculated the leading-twist tensor structure function $b_1$ by using convolution description for the deuteron. We found large differences between our theoretical functions and HERMES experimental data on $b_1$. Although higher-twist effects should be considered in obtaining experimental $b_1$, it suggests a possible existence of new hadron physics mechanism for spin-1 hadrons. Furthermore, we found that there are significant distributions at large Bjorken $x$. In future, an experimental measurement is planned at JLab for $b_1$ and there is a possibility of a proton-deuteron Drell-Yan experiment at Fermilab with the tensor-polarized deuteron, so that further theoretical studies are needed for clarifying the physics origin of tensor structure in terms of quark and gluon degrees of freedom.
The fragmentation of deuterons into pions emitted forward in the kinematic region forbidden for free nucleon-nucleon collisions is analyzed. It is shown that the inclusion of the non-nucleonic degrees of freedom in a deuteron results in a satisfactory description of the data for the inclusive pion spectrum and improves the description of the data about $T_{20}$. According to the data, $T_{20}$ has very small positive values, less than 0.2, which contradicts the theoretical calculations ignoring these degrees of freedom.
The chiral-odd structure function h_{1}^D(x) and the tensor charge of the deuteron are studied within the Bethe-Salpeter formalism for the deuteron amplitude. Utilizing a simple model for the nucleon structure function, h_1^N, h_1^D(x) is calculated and the nuclear effects are analyzed.
We study the magnetic properties of quark matter in the NJL model with the tensor interaction. The spin-polarized phase given by the tensor interaction remains even when the quark mass is zero, while the phase given by the axial vector interaction disappears. There are two kinds of spin-polarized phases: one appears in the chiral-broken phase, and the other appears in the chiral-restored phase where the quark mass is zero. The latter phase can appear independently of the strength of the tensor interaction.
We investigate the sensitivity of the cross section for lepton pair production off a deuteron target, $gamma d to l^+ l^- d$, to the deuteron charge radius. We show that for small momentum transfers the Bethe-Heitler process dominates, and that it is sensitive to the charge radius such that a cross section ratio measurement of about $0.1 %$ relative accuracy could give a deuteron charge radius more accurate that the current electron scattering value and sufficiently accurate to distinguish between the electronic and muonic atomic values.