The Relativistic N-body Problem in a Separable Two-Body Basis

We use Dirac's constraint dynamics to obtain a Hamiltonian formulation of the relativistic N-body problem in a separable two-body basis in which the particles interact pair-wise through scalar and vector interactions. The resultant N-body Hamiltonian is relativistically covariant. It can be easily separated in terms of the center-of-mass and the relative motion of any two-body subsystem. It can also be separated into an unperturbed Hamiltonian with a residual interaction. In a system of two-body composite particles, the solutions of the unperturbed Hamiltonian are relativistic two-body internal states, each of which can be obtained by solving a relativistic Schr\"odinger-like equation. The resultant two-body wave functions can be used as basis states to evaluate reaction matrix elements in the general N-body problem. We prove a relativistic version of the post-prior equivalence which guarantees a unique evaluation of the reaction matrix element, independent of the ways of separating the Hamiltonian into unperturbed and residual interactions. Since an arbitrary reaction matrix element involves composite particles in motion, we show explicitly how such matrix elements can be evaluated in terms of the wave functions of the composite particles and the relevant Lorentz transformations.Comment: 42 pages, 2 figures, in LaTe

Relativistic Calculation of the Meson Spectrum: a Fully Covariant Treatment Versus Standard Treatments

A large number of treatments of the meson spectrum have been tried that consider mesons as quark - anti quark bound states. Recently, we used relativistic quantum "constraint" mechanics to introduce a fully covariant treatment defined by two coupled Dirac equations. For field-theoretic interactions, this procedure functions as a "quantum mechanical transform of Bethe-Salpeter equation". Here, we test its spectral fits against those provided by an assortment of models: Wisconsin model, Iowa State model, Brayshaw model, and the popular semi-relativistic treatment of Godfrey and Isgur. We find that the fit provided by the two-body Dirac model for the entire meson spectrum competes with the best fits to partial spectra provided by the others and does so with the smallest number of interaction functions without additional cutoff parameters necessary to make other approaches numerically tractable. We discuss the distinguishing features of our model that may account for the relative overall success of its fits. Note especially that in our approach for QCD, the resulting pion mass and associated Goldstone behavior depend sensitively on the preservation of relativistic couplings that are crucial for its success when solved nonperturbatively for the analogous two-body bound-states of QED.Comment: 75 pages, 6 figures, revised content

Correction Factors for Reactions involving Quark-Antiquark Annihilation or Production

In reactions with $q \bar q$ production or $q\bar q$ annihilation, initial- and final-state interactions give rise to large corrections to the lowest-order cross sections. We evaluate the correction factor first for low relative kinetic energies by studying the distortion of the relative wave function. We then follow the procedure of Schwinger to interpolate this result with the well-known perturbative QCD vertex correction factors at high energies, to obtain an explicit semi-empirical correction factor applicable to the whole range of energies. The correction factor predicts an enhancement for $q\bar q$ in color-singlet states and a suppression for color-octet states, the effect increasing as the relative velocity decreases. Consequences on dilepton production in the quark-gluon plasma, the Drell-Yan process, and heavy quark production processes are discussed.Comment: 25 pages (REVTeX), includes 2 uuencoded compressed postscript figure

Relativistic Modification of the Gamow Factor

In processes involving Coulomb-type initial- and final-state interactions, the Gamow factor has been traditionally used to take into account these additional interactions. The Gamow factor needs to be modified when the magnitude of the effective coupling constant increases or when the velocity increases. For the production of a pair of particles under their mutual Coulomb-type interaction, we obtain the modification of the Gamow factor in terms of the overlap of the Feynman amplitude with the relativistic wave function of the two particles. As a first example, we study the modification of the Gamow factor for the production of two bosons. The modification is substantial when the coupling constant is large.Comment: 13 pages, in LaTe

A Tale of Three Equations: Breit, Eddington-Guant, and Two-Body Dirac

G.Breit's original paper of 1929 postulates the Breit equation as a correction to an earlier defective equation due to Eddington and Gaunt, containing a form of interaction suggested by Heisenberg and Pauli. We observe that manifestly covariant electromagnetic Two-Body Dirac equations previously obtained by us in the framework of Relativistic Constraint Mechanics reproduce the spectral results of the Breit equation but through an interaction structure that contains that of Eddington and Gaunt. By repeating for our equation the analysis that Breit used to demonstrate the superiority of his equation to that of Eddington and Gaunt, we show that the historically unfamiliar interaction structures of Two-Body Dirac equations (in Breit-like form) are just what is needed to correct the covariant Eddington Gaunt equation without resorting to Breit's version of retardation.Comment: 15 pages latex, published in Foundations of Physics, Vol 27, 67 (1997

Relativistic Generalization of the Gamow Factor for Fermion Pair Production or Annihilation

In the production or annihilation of a pair of fermions, the initial-state or final-state interactions often lead to significant effects on the reaction cross sections. For Coulomb-type interactions, the Gamow factor has been traditionally used to take into account these effects. However the Gamow factor needs to be modified when the magnitude of the coupling constant or the relative velocity of two particles increases. We obtain the relativistic generalization of the Gamow factor in terms of the overlap of the Feynman amplitude with the relativistic wave function of two fermions with an attractive Coulomb-type interaction. An explicit form of the corrective factor is presented for the spin-singlet S-wave state. While the corrective factor approaches the Gamow factor in the non-relativistic limit, we found that the Gamow factor significantly over-estimates the effects when the coupling constant or the velocity is large.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures in LaTe

How to obtain a covariant Breit type equation from relativistic Constraint Theory

It is shown that, by an appropriate modification of the structure of the interaction potential, the Breit equation can be incorporated into a set of two compatible manifestly covariant wave equations, derived from the general rules of Constraint Theory. The complementary equation to the covariant Breit type equation determines the evolution law in the relative time variable. The interaction potential can be systematically calculated in perturbation theory from Feynman diagrams. The normalization condition of the Breit wave function is determined. The wave equation is reduced, for general classes of potential, to a single Pauli-Schr\"odinger type equation. As an application of the covariant Breit type equation, we exhibit massless pseudoscalar bound state solutions, corresponding to a particular class of confining potentials.Comment: 20 pages, Late

Tests of Two-Body Dirac Equation Wave Functions in the Decays of Quarkonium and Positronium into Two Photons

Two-Body Dirac equations of constraint dynamics provide a covariant framework to investigate the problem of highly relativistic quarks in meson bound states. This formalism eliminates automatically the problems of relative time and energy, leading to a covariant three dimensional formalism with the same number of degrees of freedom as appears in the corresponding nonrelativistic problem. It provides bound state wave equations with the simplicity of the nonrelativistic Schroedinger equation. Here we begin important tests of the relativistic sixteen component wave function solutions obtained in a recent work on meson spectroscopy, extending a method developed previously for positronium decay into two photons. Preliminary to this we examine the positronium decay in the 3P_{0,2} states as well as the 1S_0. The two-gamma quarkonium decays that we investigate are for the \eta_{c}, \eta_{c}^{\prime}, \chi_{c0}, \chi_{c2}, \pi^{0}, \pi_{2}, a_{2}, and f_{2}^{\prime} mesons. Our results for the four charmonium states compare well with those from other quark models and show the particular importance of including all components of the wave function as well as strong and CM energy dependent potential effects on the norm and amplitude. The results for the \pi^{0}, although off the experimental rate by 15%, is much closer than the usual expectations from a potential model. We conclude that the Two-Body Dirac equations lead to wave functions which provide good descriptions of the two-gamma decay amplitude and can be used with some confidence for other purposes.Comment: 79 pages, included new sections on covariant scalar product and added pages on positronium decay for 3P0 and 3P_2 state

Singularity Structures in Coulomb-Type Potentials in Two Body Dirac Equations of Constraint Dynamics

Two Body Dirac Equations (TBDE) of Dirac's relativistic constraint dynamics have been successfully applied to obtain a covariant nonperturbative description of QED and QCD bound states. Coulomb-type potentials in these applications lead naively in other approaches to singular relativistic corrections at short distances that require the introduction of either perturbative treatments or smoothing parameters. We examine the corresponding singular structures in the effective potentials of the relativistic Schroedinger equation obtained from the Pauli reduction of the TBDE. We find that the relativistic Schroedinger equation lead in fact to well-behaved wave function solutions when the full potential and couplings of the system are taken into account. The most unusual case is the coupled triplet system with S=1 and L={(J-1),(J+1)}. Without the inclusion of the tensor coupling, the effective S-state potential would become attractively singular. We show how including the tensor coupling is essential in order that the wave functions be well-behaved at short distances. For example, the S-state wave function becomes simply proportional to the D-state wave function and dips sharply to zero at the origin, unlike the usual S-state wave functions. Furthermore, this behavior is similar in both QED and QCD, independent of the asymptotic freedom behavior of the assumed QCD vector potential. Light- and heavy-quark meson states can be described well by using a simplified linear-plus-Coulomb-type QCD potential apportioned appropriately between world scalar and vector potentials. We use this potential to exhibit explicitly the origin of the large pi-rho splitting and effective chiral symmetry breaking. The TBDE formalism developed here may be used to study quarkonia in quark-gluon plasma environments.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figure

Relativistic Quantum Mechanics and Relativistic Entanglement in the Rest-Frame Instant Form of Dynamics

A new formulation of relativistic quantum mechanics is proposed in the framework of the rest-frame instant form of dynamics with its instantaneous Wigner 3-spaces and with its description of the particle world-lines by means of derived non-canonical predictive coordinates. In it we quantize the frozen Jacobi data of the non-local 4-center of mass and the Wigner-covariant relative variables in an abstract (frame-independent) internal space whose existence is implied by Wigner-covariance. The formalism takes care of the properties of both relativistic bound states and scattering ones. There is a natural solution to the \textit{relativistic localization problem}. The non-relativistic limit leads to standard quantum mechanics but with a frozen Hamilton-Jacobi description of the center of mass. Due to the \textit{non-locality} of the Poincar\'e generators the resulting theory of relativistic entanglement is both \textit{kinematically non-local and spatially non-separable}: these properties, absent in the non-relativistic limit, throw a different light on the interpretation of the non-relativistic quantum non-locality and of its impact on foundational problems.Comment: 73 pages, includes revision