Covariant nucleon wave function with S, D, and P-state components

Abstract

Expressions for the nucleon wave functions in the covariant spectator theory (CST) are derived. The nucleon is described as a system with a off-mass-shell constituent quark, free to interact with an external probe, and two spectator constituent quarks on their mass shell. Integrating over the internal momentum of the on-mass-shell quark pair allows us to derive an effective nucleon wave function that can be written only in terms of the quark and diquark (quark-pair) variables. The derived nucleon wave function includes contributions from S, P and D-waves.