$\rho$-Meson Form Factors in the Point Form

Abstract

We present a calculation of the electromagnetic form factors of the $\rho^+$ meson. Our formalism is based on the point-form of relativistic quantum mechanics. Electron-$\rho$-meson scattering is formulated as a coupled-channel problem for a Bakamjian-Thomas mass operator, such that the dynamics of the exchanged photon is taken explicitly into account. The $\rho$-meson current is extracted from on-shell matrix elements of the optical potential of the scattering process. As a consequence of the violation of cluster separability in the Bakamjian-Thomas framework, our current includes additional, unphysical contributions, which can be separated from the physical ones uniquely. Our results for the form factors are in good agreement with other approaches.