Covariant spectator theory for the electromagnetic three-nucleon form factors: Complete impulse approximation
Abstract
We present the first calculations of the electromagnetic form factors of 3He and 3H within the framework of the Covariant Spectator Theory (CST). This first exploratory study concentrates on the sensitivity of the form factors to the strength of the scalar meson-nucleon off-shell coupling, known from previous studies to have a strong influence on the three-body binding energy. Results presented here were obtained using the complete impulse approximation (CIA), which includes contributions of relativistic origin that appear as two-body corrections in a non-relativistic framework, such as "Z-graphs", but omits other two and three-body currents. We compare our results to non-relativistic calculations augmented by relativistic corrections of O(v/c)2.