Noninstantaneous approximation to the Bethe-Salpeter equation

Journal Article · Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1983 · Phys. Rev. C; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.28.383· OSTI ID:5830564

Bhalerao, R S; Gurvitz, S A

A new relativistic three-dimensional two-body equation is presented. If the negative energy poles of the two-body propagator are neglected, this equation is exactly equivalent to the Bethe-Salpeter equation. In the derivation of this equation from the Bethe-Salpeter equation, retardation effects in the two-body interaction are treated carefully by taking fully into account contributions of the exchanged-''meson'' singularities. The results are presented for the two cases: (a) the driving term in the Bethe-Salpeter equation is given by the relativistic one-meson exchange diagram (the ladder approximation) and (b) the driving term also includes relativistic crossed diagrams. Using these results it is shown that the Bethe-Salpeter equation in the ladder approximation goes over to the Lippmann-Schwinger equation in the nonrelativistic limit. But unlike the Blankenbecler-Sugar and Gross equations, the two-body potential is not the nonrelativistic Yukawa potential. It is given by an infinite sum of terms corresponding to instantaneous multimeson exchange contributions in the nonrelativistic two-body interaction. A method is presented which in the low energy limit greatly simplifies the calculation with crossed diagrams. The theory is applied to the problem of two scalar ''nucleons'' exchanging scalar ''mesons,'' and comparisons are made with other relativistic equations. Also a simple model calculation is performed to demonstrate the sensitivity of phenomenological meson masses and meson-nucleon coupling constants to the theoretical reduction scheme chosen.

• Research Organization: Physics Department, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
• OSTI ID: 5830564
• Journal Information: Phys. Rev. C; (United States), Vol. 28:1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
TWO-BODY PROBLEM
BETHE-SALPETER EQUATION
COUPLING CONSTANTS
LADDER APPROXIMATION
LIPPMANN-SCHWINGER EQUATION
PROPAGATOR
RELATIVITY THEORY
YUKAWA POTENTIAL
EQUATIONS
FIELD THEORIES
GENERAL RELATIVITY THEORY
INTEGRAL EQUATIONS
MANY-BODY PROBLEM
NUCLEAR POTENTIAL
POTENTIALS
657002* - Theoretical & Mathematical Physics- Classical & Quantum Mechanics