Relativistic Bound States

Abstract

In this contribution, I will give a brief survey of present techniques to treat the bound state problem in relativistic quantum field theories. In particular, I will discuss the Bethe-Salpeter equation, various quasi-potential equations, the Feynman-Schwinger representation, and similarity transformation methods for Hamiltonian approaches in light-front quantization. Finally, I will comment on a related similarity transformation in the usual equal-time quantized theory.

Comments: 9 pages, LaTeX, 3 pspicture diagrams, 3 postscript figures, uses aipxfm.sty. Talk delivered at the X Mexican School of Particles and Fields, Playa del Carmen, Mexico, 2002