We present a high-quality description of the deuteron electromagnetic form factors in a soft-wall anti-de Sitter/quantum chromodynamics approach. We first propose an effective action describing the dynamics of the deuteron in the presence of an external vector field. Based on this action the deuteron electromagnetic form factors are calculated, displaying the correct $1/Q^{10}$ power scaling for large $Q^2$ values. This finding is consistent with quark counting rules and the earlier observation that this result holds in confining gauge/gravity duals. The $Q^2$ dependence of the deuteron form factors is defined by a single and universal scale parameter $\kappa$, which is fixed from data.

• Received 14 January 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.91.114001