The differential cross section for electrodisintegration of the deuteron is calculated for near-threshold proton-neutron final states and backward electron angles in the GeV/c momentum transfer region. The calculation employs light-front-form Hamiltonian dynamics with a fixed number of nucleons for the strong interaction. The predicted cross sections are quite close to nonrelativistic calculations using only one-nucleon currents ( and thus disagree significantly with the data), but with quantitative differences in the kinematic region $Q^2$>20 ${\mathrm{fm}}^{\mathrm{-}2}$.

• Received 26 October 1987

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.37.1765