Effective Hamiltonians with Relativistic Corrections II: Application to Compton Scattering by a Proton

Abstract

We discuss two different methods of obtaining ``effective $2 \times 2$ Hamiltonians'' of the electromagnetic interaction which include relativistic corrections. One is the standard Foldy--Wouthuysen transformation which we compare with the Hamiltonian obtained from a direct reduction of the matrix element of the interaction Hamiltonian between positive--energy solutions of the free Dirac equation. The two approaches are applied to Compton scattering by a proton for which a low--energy theorem exists. It is found that the Foldy--Wouthuysen Hamiltonian yields the same result as a covariant calculation. This is not true for the direct reduction method which will in general lead to incorrect results even after restoring the gauge invariance property of the Hamiltonian. Furthermore, it is shown that an identification of the Z--diagrams of the usual Dirac representation with the contact graphs of the Foldy--Wouthuysen representation is incorrect beyond the order of the low--energy theorem.