Studying the quark-antiquark force with inelastic pion-electron scattering

The concept of studying the internal structure of mesons is explored. Mesons, which are in principle two body quark-antiquark interactions, may be much easier to understand than the nucleon. Measurements of the inelastic form factors to specific final states may permit careful direct studies of various components of the strong force. For example, by looking at vector meson final states the spin flip amplitude can be isolated. Technical difficulties involved in a realistic experiment are examined. Experiments to some final states such as ρ, K^*, and a₀ are practical today.