Coherent pion electroproduction on the deuteron in the Δ(1232) resonance region

Coherent pion electroproduction on the deuteron is studied in the Δ(1232) resonance region in the impulse approximation, i.e., neglecting pion rescattering and two-body effects. The elementary reaction on the nucleon is described in the framework of an effective Lagrangian approach including the dominant P33(1232) resonance and the usual background terms of the Born contributions for π0 production. We have studied the influence of these different contributions on the various structure functions which determine the unpolarized exclusive differential cross section in a variety of kinematic regions.