The Light-Cone Fock Representation in QCD

The light-cone Fock-state representation of QCD encodes the properties of a hadrons in terms of frame-independent wavefunctions, providing a systematic framework for evaluating structure functions, exclusive hadronic matrix elements, including time-like heavy hadron decay amplitudes, form factors, and deeply virtual Compton scattering. A new type of jet production reaction, "self-resolving diffractive interactions" can provide direct information on the light-cone wavefunctions of hadrons in terms of their quark and gluon degrees of freedom as well as the composition of nuclei in terms of their nucleon and mesonic degrees of freedom. The relation of the intrinsic sea to the light-cone wavefunctions is discussed. The decomposition of light-cone spin is illustrated for the quantum fluctuations of an electron.