Electromagnetic Meson Form Factors in the Salpeter Model

Abstract

We present a covariant scheme to calculate mesonic transitions in the framework of the Salpeter equation for $q\bar{q}$-states. The full Bethe Salpeter amplitudes are reconstructed from equal time amplitudes which were obtained in a previous paper\cite{Mue} by solving the Salpeter equation for a confining plus an instanton induced interaction. This method is applied to calculate electromagnetic form factors and decay widths of low lying pseudoscalar and vector mesons including predictions for CEBAF experiments. We also describe the momentum transfer dependence for the processes $\pi^0,\eta,\eta'\rightarrow\gamma\gamma^*$.