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covariantly eliminate the relative energy, introduce the relative momentum formula_66 defined by
The above definition of the relative momentum forces the orthogonality of the total
which follows from taking the scalar product of either equation with formula_18.
From Eqs.() and (), this relative momentum can be written in terms of
are the projections of the momenta formula_69 and formula_70 along the direction
of the total momentum formula_18. Subtracting the two constraints formula_77 and formula_78, gives
The equation formula_82 describes both the c.m. motion and the
internal relative motion. To characterize the former motion, observe that
since the potential formula_83 depends only on the difference of the two
(This does not require that formula_85 since the formula_86.) Thus, the total momentum formula_18 is a constant of motion and
formula_79 is an eigenstate state characterized by a total momentum
formula_89. In the c.m. system formula_90 with formula_15 the
invariant center of momentum (c.m.) energy. Thus
and so formula_79 is also an eigenstate of c.m. energy operators for each of
The above set of equations follow from the constraints formula_98 and the definition of the relative momenta given in Eqs.() and ().
If instead one chooses to define (for a more general choice see Horwitz),
and it is straight forward to show that the constraint Eq.() leads
in place of formula_67. This conforms with the earlier claim on the
vanishing of the relative energy in the c.m. frame made in conjunction with
the TBDE.\ In the second choice the c.m. value of the relative energy is
not defined as zero but comes from the original generalized mass shell
constraints. The above equations for the relative and constituent
four-momentum are the relativistic analogues of the nonrelativistic equations
Using Eqs.(),(),(), one can write formula_36 in terms of formula_18 and formula_23
Eq.() contains both the total momentum formula_18 [through the formula_112] and the relative momentum formula_23. Using Eq. (), one obtains the eigenvalue equation
so that formula_114 becomes the standard triangle
With the above constraint Eqs.() on formula_79 then formula_117 where formula_118. This allows
writing Eq. () in the form of an eigenvalue equation
having a structure very similar to that of the ordinary three-dimensional
nonrelativistic Schrödinger equation. It is a manifestly covariant
equation, but at the same time its three-dimensional structure is evident.
The four-vectors formula_120 and formula_121 have only
The similarity to the three-dimensional structure of the nonrelativistic
Schrödinger equation can be made more explicit by writing the equation in
A plausible structure for the quasipotential formula_83 can be found by
observing that the one-body Klein-Gordon equation formula_127 takes the form formula_128 when one
introduces a scalar interaction and timelike vector interaction via formula_129and formula_130. In the
two-body case, separate classical and quantum field theory
arguments show that when one includes world scalar and
vector interactions then formula_83 depends on two underlying invariant
functions formula_132 and formula_133 through the two-body Klein-Gordon-like potential
form with the same general structure, that is
Those field theories further yield the c.m. energy dependent forms
ones that Tododov introduced as the relativistic reduced mass
and effective particle energy for a two-body system. Similar to what
happens in the nonrelativistic two-body problem, in the relativistic case
we have the motion of this effective particle taking place as if it were in
an external field (here generated by formula_2 and formula_138). The two kinematical
variables formula_139 and formula_140 are related to one another by the
If one introduces the four-vectors, including a vector interaction formula_142
and scalar interaction formula_132, then the following classical minimal
Notice, that the interaction in this "reduced particle" constraint depends
on two invariant scalars, formula_133 and formula_132, one guiding the time-like
vector interaction and one the scalar interaction.
Is there a set of two-body Klein-Gordon equations analogous to the two-body Dirac
equations? The classical relativistic constraints analogous to the quantum
two-body Dirac equations (discussed in the introduction) and that have the same structure as the above
Defining structures that display time-like vector and scalar interactions
and using the constraint formula_160, reproduces Eqs.() provided
and each, due to the constraint formula_167 is equivalent to
Hyperbolic versus external field form of the two-body Dirac equations.
For the two body system there are numerous covariant forms of interaction.
The simplest way of looking at these is from the point of view of the gamma
matrix structures of the corresponding interaction vertices of the single
paraticle exchange diagrams. For scalar, pseudoscalar, vector,
pseudovector, and tensor exchanges those matrix structures are respectively
The form of the Two-Body Dirac equations which most readily incorporates
each or any number of these intereractions in concert is the so-called hyperbolic form of the TBDE
interactions those forms ultimately reduce to the ones given in the first
set of equations of this article. Those equations are called the external
field-like forms because their appearances are individually the same as
those for the usual one-body Dirac equation in the presence of external
The most general hyperbolic form for compatible TBDE is
where formula_172 represents any invariant interaction singly or in
combination. It has a matrix structure in addition to coordinate
dependence. Depending on what that matrix structure is one has either
scalar, pseudoscalar, vector, pseudovector, or tensor interactions. The
operators formula_173 and formula_174 are auxiliary constraints
in which the formula_176 are the free Dirac operators
This, in turn leads to the two compatibility conditions
conditions do not restrict the gamma matrix structure of formula_172. That
matrix structure is determined by the type of vertex-vertex structure
incorporated in the interaction. For the two types of invariant
interactions formula_172 emphasized in this article they are
For general independent scalar and vector interactions
The vector interaction specified by the above matrix structure for an electromagnetic-like interaction would correspond to the Feynman gauge.
If one inserts Eq.() into () and brings the free
Dirac operator () to the right of the matrix hyperbolic functions
and uses standard gamma matrix commutators and anticommutators and formula_186 one arrives at formula_187
The (covariant) structure of these equations are analogous to those of a Dirac equation for each of the two particles, with formula_194 and formula_195
playing the roles that formula_196 and formula_197 do in the single particle
Over and above the usual kinetic part formula_199 and
time-like vector and scalar potential portions, the spin-dependent
and the last set of derivative terms are two-body recoil effects absent for
the one-body Dirac equation but essential for the compatibility
(consistency) of the two-body equations. The connections between what
are designated as the vertex invariants formula_201 and the
Comparing Eq.() with the first equation of this article one finds
Note that the first portion of the vector potentials is timelike (parallel
to formula_209 while the next portion is spacelike (perpendicular to formula_210. The spin-dependent scalar potentials formula_211 are