Dirac's inspired point form and hadron form factors

Noticing that the point-form approach referred to in many recent works implies physics described on hyperplanes, an approach inspired from Dirac's one, which involves a hyperboloid surface, is presented. A few features pertinent to this new approach are emphasized. Consequences as for the calculation of form factors are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to be published in the proceedings of BARYON0

A Field Theoretic Investigation of Spin in QCD

Utilizing the kinematical boost in light-front formalism one can address the issue of relativistic spin operators in an arbitrary reference frame. In the gauge $A^+=0$, the interaction dependent transverse spin operators can be separated into three parts. In analogy with the helicity sum rule, we propose a transverse spin sum rule. We perform a one loop renormalization of the transverse spin operator and show that the counterterm needed is the same as the linear mass counterterm in the light-front QCD Hamiltonian.Comment: 4 pages, Latex2e, contribution to the proceedings of Tenth International Light-Cone Meeting on Non-Perturbative QCD and Hadron Phenomenology, Heidelberg, June 12-17, 200

Relativistic quantum mechanics: A Dirac's point-form inspired approach

This paper describes a tentative relativistic quantum mechanics approach inspired by Dirac's point-form, which is based on the physics description on a hyperboloid surface. It is mainly characterized by a non-standard relation of the constituent momenta of some system to its total momentum. Contrary to instant- and front-form approaches, where it takes the form of a 3-dimensional delta function, the relation is given here by a Lorentz-scalar constraint. Thus, in the c.m. frame, the sum of the constituent momenta, which differs from zero off-energy shell, has no fixed direction, in accordance with the absence of preferred direction on a hyperboloid surface. To some extent, this gives rise to an extra degree of freedom entering the description of the system of interest. The development of a consistent formalism within this picture is described. Comparison with other approaches is made.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, to be submitte

Scaling of Hadronic Form Factors in Point Form Kinematics

The general features of baryon form factors calculated with point form kinematics are derived. With point form kinematics and spectator currents hadronic form factors are functions of $\eta:={1\over 4}(v_{out}-v_{in})^2$ and, over a range of $\eta$ values are insensitive to unitary scale transformations of the model wave functions when the extent of the wave function is small compared to the scale defined by the constituent mass, $<r^2 > \ll 1/m^2$. The form factors are sensitive to the shape of such compact wave functions. Simple 3-quark proton wave functions are employed to illustrate these features. Rational and algebraic model wave functions lead to a reasonable representation of the empirical form factors, while Gaussian wave functions fail. For large values of $\eta$ point form kinematics with spectator currents leads to power law behavior of the wave functions

Comparison of Different Boost Transformations for the Calculation of Form Factors in Relativistic Quantum Mechanics

The effect of different boost expressions, pertinent to the instant, front and point forms of relativistic quantum mechanics, is considered for the calculation of the ground-state form factor of a two-body system in simple scalar models. Results with a Galilean boost as well as an explicitly covariant calculation based on the Bethe-Salpeter approach are given for comparison. It is found that the present so-called point-form calculations of form factors strongly deviate from all the other ones. This suggests that the formalism which underlies them requires further elaboration. A proposition in this sense is made.Comment: Invited talk given at the 18th European Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics, Bled, Slovenia, 8-14 Sep 2002. Submitted to Few Body Syst.Supp

Heavy-to-Light Form Factors in the Final Hadron Large Energy Limit: Covariant Quark Model Approach

We prove the full covariance of the heavy-to-light weak current matrix elements based on the Bakamjian-Thomas construction of relativistic quark models, in the heavy mass limit for the parent hadron and the large energy limit for the daughter one. Moreover, this quark model representation of the heavy-to-light form factors fulfills the general relations that were recently argued to hold in the corresponding limit of QCD, namely that there are only three independent form factors describing the B -> pi (rho) matrix elements, as well as the factorized scaling law sqrt(M)z(E) of the form factors with respect to the heavy mass M and large energy E. These results constitute another good property of the quark models \`a la Bakamjian-Thomas, which were previously shown to exhibit covariance and Isgur-Wise scaling in the heavy-to-heavy case.Comment: 11 pages, LaTex2e, no figur

Form factors of heavy-light systems in point-form relativistic quantum mechanics: the Isgur-Wise function

We investigate electromagnetic and weak form factors of heavy-light mesons in the context of point-form relativistic quantum mechanics. To this aim we treat the physical processes from which such electroweak form factors are extracted by means of a coupled channel approach which accounts for the dynamics of the intermediate gauge bosons. It is shown that heavy-quark symmetry is respected by this formulation. A simple analytical expression is obtained for the Isgur-Wise function in the heavy-quark limit. Breaking of heavy-quark symmetry due to realistic values of the heavy-quark mass are studied numerically.Comment: Presented at the 21st European Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics, Salamanca, Spain, 30 August - 3 September 201

Form factors in RQM approaches: constraints from space-time translations

Different relativistic quantum mechanics approaches have recently been used to calculate properties of various systems, form factors in particular. It is known that predictions, which most often rely on a single-particle current approximation, can lead to predictions with a very large range. It was shown that accounting for constraints related to space-time translations could considerably reduce this range. It is shown here that predictions can be made identical for a large range of cases. These ones include the following approaches: instant form, front form, and "point-form" in arbitrary momentum configurations and a dispersion-relation approach which can be considered as the approach which the other ones should converge to. This important result supposes both an implementation of the above constraints and an appropriate single-particle-like current. The change of variables that allows one to establish the equivalence of the approaches is given. Some points are illustrated with numerical results for the ground state of a system consisting of scalar particles.Comment: 37 pages, 7 figures; further comments in ps 16 and 19; further references; modified presentation of some formulas; corrected misprint

B→D∗∗B\to D^{\ast\ast} semileptonic decay in covariant quark models \`a la Bakamjian Thomas

Once chosen the dynamics in one frame, for example the rest frame, the Bakamjian and Thomas method allows to define relativistic quark models in any frame. These models have been shown to provide, in the heavy quark limit, fully covariant current form factors as matrix elements of the quark current operator. They also verify the Isgur-Wise scaling and give a slope parameter $\rho^2>3/4$ for all the possible choices of the dynamics. In this paper we study the $L=1$ excited states and derive the general formula, valid for any dynamics, for the scaling invariant form factors $\tau_{1/2}^{(n)}(w)$ and $\tau_{3/2}^{(n)}(w)$. We also check the Bjorken-Isgur-Wise sum rule already demonstrated elsewhere in this class of models.Comment: 14 pages, Latex2e, AMS-LaTe

Point-form quantum field theory and meson form factors

We shortly review point-form quantum field theory, i.e. the canonical quantization of a relativistic field theory on a Lorentz-invariant surface of the form $x_\mu x^\mu = \tau^2$. As an example of how point-form quantum field theory may enter the framework of relativistic quantum mechanics we discuss the calculation of the electromagnetic form factor of a confined quark-antiquark pair (e.g. the pion).Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures. Based on a talk presented by W. Schweiger at the 20th European Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics, September 10-14 2007, Pisa, Ital