Restrictions imposed on relativistic two-body interactions by classical relativistic field theory.

Abstract

We show that various relativistic potential models (all sharing exact relativistic two-body kinematics and a common nonrelativistic limit) can be distinguished by agreement or disagreement with relativistic corrections produced by classical field theory. We find that the only one of these models whose relativisic corrections duplicate those of classical field theory is the minimal Todorov equation. Conversely, we derive the Todorov equation from the semirelativistic dynamics of classical field theory, thus exposing the classical field-theoretic origins of its characteristic minimal potential structures and dependences on effective one-body variables.