Bound states in Yukawa theory

Abstract

A generalization of the Gell-Mann-Low Theorem is applied to bound state calculations in Yukawa theory. The resulting effective Schroedinger equation is solved numerically for two-fermion bound states with the exchange of a massless boson. The complete low-lying bound state spectrum is obtained for different ratios of the constituent masses. No abnormal solutions are found. We show the consistency of the non-relativistic and one-body limits and discuss the special cases of identical fermions and fermion-antifermion states. To our knowledge, this is the first consistent calculation of bound states in pure Yukawa theory (without UV cutoff).