RELATIVISTIC NUCLEAR HAMILTONIANS

Relativistic Hamiltonians are defined as the sum of relativistic one-b ody kinetic energies, two-and many-body interactions and their boost c orrections. We review the calculation of the boost correction of the t wo-body interaction from commutation relations of the Poincare group a nd show that its important terms can be easily understood from classic al relativistic mechanics. The boost corrections for scalar- and vecto r-meson-exchange interactions, obtained from relativistic field theory , are shown to be in agreement with the results of the classical calcu lation. These boost corrections are also shown to be necessary to repr oduce the known results of relativistic mean-field theories. We conclu de with comments on the relativistic boost operator for the wave funct ion of a nucleus. Some of the results presented in this article are kn own. We hope that a better understanding of relativistic Hamiltonians and their relation to relativistic field theory is obtained by putting them together with the new relations.