Significance of relativistic wave equations for bound states

Journal Article · Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1992 · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.46.1088· OSTI ID:7035572

Lucha, W ^[1]; Rupprecht, H; Schoeberl, F F ^[2]

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1. Institut fuer Hochenergiephysik, Oesterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, A-1050 Wien (Austria)
2. Institut fuer Theoretische Physik, Universitaet Wien, A-1090 Wien (Austria)

We scrutinize the relevance of relativistic wave equations for the description of quark-antiquark bound states. By comparing the predictions of the nonrelativistic Schroedinger equation (with only the lowest-order relativistic corrections of the famous Breit-Fermi Hamiltonian), the spinless Salpeter equation, and a new semirelativistic wave equation (which incorporates relativistic kinematics and the complete relativistic corrections to the static interaction potential) for light and heavy quarkonia within three different potential models, we discuss the extent to which the use of relativistic wave equations is reasonable or necessary in order to reproduce the experimentally observed meson mass spectra. We are forced to conclude that---contrary to one's physical intuition---a relativistic treatment of bound states in a potential model provides no improvement at all compared to the corresponding nonrelativistic description.

• OSTI ID: 7035572
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States), Vol. 46:3; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
QUARK-ANTIQUARK INTERACTIONS
BOUND STATE
COMPOSITE MODELS
EIGENVALUES
EQUATIONS OF MOTION
FERMIONS
HAMILTONIANS
MASS
MASS SPECTRA
PARTICLE KINEMATICS
QUARKONIUM
RELATIVITY THEORY
SCHROEDINGER EQUATION
SPIN
WAVE EQUATIONS
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS
FIELD THEORIES
GENERAL RELATIVITY THEORY
INTERACTIONS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATHEMATICAL OPERATORS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
PARTICLE MODELS
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
QUANTUM OPERATORS
SPECTRA
662240* - Models for Strong Interactions- (1992-)