Experimental form factors of the hydrogen and helium isotopes, extracted from an up-to-date global analysis of cross sections and polarization observables measured in elastic electron scattering from these systems, are compared to predictions obtaine
d in three different theoretical approaches: the first is based on realistic interactions and currents, including relativistic corrections (labeled as the conventional approach); the second relies on a chiral effective field theory description of the strong and electromagnetic interactions in nuclei (labeled $chi$EFT); the third utilizes a fully relativistic treatment of nuclear dynamics as implemented in the covariant spectator theory (labeled CST). For momentum transfers below $Q lesssim 5$ fm$^{-1}$ there is satisfactory agreement between experimental data and theoretical results in all three approaches. However, at $Q gtrsim 5$ fm$^{-1}$, particularly in the case of the deuteron, a relativistic treatment of the dynamics, as is done in the CST, is necessary. The experimental data on the deuteron $A$ structure function extend to $Q simeq 12$ fm$^{-1}$, and the close agreement between these data and the CST results suggests that, even in this extreme kinematical regime, there is no evidence for new effects coming from quark and gluon degrees of freedom at short distances.
The covariant spectator formalism is used to model the nucleon and the $Delta$(1232) as a system of three constituent quarks with their own electromagnetic structure. The definition of the ``fixed-axis polarization states for the diquark emitted from
the initial state vertex and absorbed into the final state vertex is discussed. The helicity sum over those states is evaluated and seen to be covariant. Using this approach, all four electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon, together with the {it magnetic} form factor, $G_M^*$, for the $gamma N to Delta$ transition, can be described using manifestly covariant nucleon and $Delta$ wave functions with {it zero} orbital angular momentum $L$, but a successful description of $G_M^*$ near $Q^2=0$ requires the addition of a pion cloud term not included in the class of valence quark models considered here. We also show that the pure $S$-wave model gives electric, $G_E^*$, and coulomb, $G^*_C$, transition form factors that are identically zero, showing that these form factors are sensitive to wave function components with $L>0$.
