Eur. Phys. J. A (2007) 33: 71-86
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2007-10424-4

Regular Article - Hadron Physics

Covariant Hamiltonian dynamics with negative-energy states

¹ Departamento de Física, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, P.le A. Moro 2, 00185, Bogotá D. C., Colombia
² INFN sez. di Roma, Roma, Italy

^* e-mail: mdesanctis@unal.edu.co;

Received: 15 February 2007
Accepted: 28 June 2007
Published online: 1 August 2007

Abstract

A relativistic quantum mechanics is studied for bound hadronic systems in the framework of the point form relativistic Hamiltonian dynamics. Negative-energy states are introduced taking into account the restrictions imposed by a correct definition of the Poincaré group generators. We obtain nonpathological, manifestly covariant wave equations that dynamically contain the contributions of the negative-energy states. Auxiliary negative-energy states are also introduced, specially for studying the interactions of the hadronic systems with external probes.