Model independent exchange currents

Abstract

It is shown that the exchange current operators of main importance for the electron scattering observables of the few‐nucleon systems can be determined almost uniquely in a gauge invariant way. The most important isovector exchange current operator can be obtained directly from the spin‐ and isospin‐dependent components of the nucleon‐nucleon interaction once these have been decomposed into terms that are associated with exchange of objects with pseudoscalar and vector quantum numbers. The main isoscalar exchange current operator is uniquely determined by the anomalous baryon current operator in the description of the baryons as topological solitons of meson fields a la Skyrme.