Exact Construction of the Electromagnetic Current Operator for Relativistic Composite Systems

Abstract

The electromagnetic current operator of a composite system must be a relativistic vector operator satisfying current conservation, cluster separability and the condition that interactions between the constituents do not renormalize the total electric charge. Assuming that these interactions are described in the framework of relativistic quantum mechanics of systems with a fixed number of particles we explicitly construct the current operators satisfying the above properties in cases of two and three particles and prove that solutions exist for any number of particles. The consideration is essentially based on the method of packing operators in the point form of relativistic dynamics developed by Sokolov. Using the method developed by Sokolov and Shatny we also construct the current operators in the instant and front forms and prove that the corresponding results are physically equivalent. The paper is self-contained what makes it possible for the reader to learn both, relativistic quantum mechanics of systems with a fixed number of particles and the problem of constructing the electromagnetic current operator for such systems.