Electron-deuteron tensor polarization and the short range behavior of the deuteron wave function

We investigate to what extent measurements of the polarization of recoil deuterons in electron-deuteron scattering would allow us to determine the short-range behavior of the deuteron wave function. We find that even if such measurements were performed out to $q=10\mathrm{}$ ${\mathrm{fm}}^{-1\mathrm{}}$ with an error of ±10% and in some cases even within ±1%, a considerable variation in the deuteron wave function inside 0.7 fm would still be compatible with such measurements. In particular it would be very difficult to employ such measurements to determine the presence of a hole in the deuteron wave function, unless complemented by firmly founded meson theoretical considerations. However, this does not in any way detract from their usefulness as a source of information on other deuteron properties, meson exchange currents and possibly three-nucleon forces.