Electromagnetic Scattering from Relativistic Bound States

The quasipotential formalism for elastic scattering from relativistic bound states is formulated based on the instant constraint in the Breit frame. The quasipotential electromagnetic current is derived from Mandelstam's five-point kernel and obeys a two-body Ward identity. Breit-frame wave functions are obtained directly by solving integral equations with nonzero total three-momentum, thus accomplishing a dynamical boost. Calculations of electron-deuteron elastic form factors illustrate the importance of the dynamical boost versus kinematic boosts of the rest frame wave functions.