A comprehensive treatment of electromagnetic interactions and the three-body spectator equations

We present a general derivation the three-body spectator (Gross) equations and the corresponding electromagnetic currents. As in previous paper on two-body systems, the wave equations and currents are derived from those for Bethe-Salpeter equation with the help of algebraic method using a concise matrix notation. The three-body interactions and currents introduced by the transition to the spectator approach are isolated and the matrix elements of the e.m. current are presented in detail for system of three indistinguishable particles, namely for elastic scattering and for two and three body break-up. The general expressions are reduced to the one-boson-exchange approximation to make contact with previous work. The method is general in that it does not rely on introduction of the electromagnetic interaction with the help of the minimal replacement. It would therefore work also for other external fields.