Two-body Dirac equations for general covariant interactions and their coupled Schrödinger-like forms

Abstract

We present new and useful “external potential” forms of the two-body Dirac equations of constraint dynamics for combined scalar, vector, pseudoscalar, pseudovector, and tensor interactions. These equations have potential applications in two-body problems for bound states in meson spectroscopy and phase shift analysis in nucleon–nucleon scattering. Toward this end, we derive their coupled Schrödinger-like forms using matrix techniques and obtain the corresponding radial equations to these forms from scalar and vector spherical harmonic decompositions.