Electromagnetic properties of baryons

Static observables of bound state systems in field theoretic descriptions are usually extracted from form factors in the limit of vanishing squared four-momentum transfer of the probing exchange particle. On the other hand, static properties in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics can be formulated by means of expectation values involving essentially scalar products of wave functions. The main objective of this work is to show that a synthesis of both approaches is indeed possible - at least if certain restrictions are made to the kind of interactions between the constituents of the bound system - leading to new insights into the structure of static properties. The focus lies especially on the charge radii and magnetic moments of baryons described within a covariant constituent quark model having its field theoretic foundations in the Bethe-Salpeter equation. The current matrix element in the Breit frame between the vertex functions is derived. The charge radius and magnetic moment of a bound three-fermion system is then derived by starting from their usual definition from form factors and in case of the charge radius also from the well-known radius of a charge distribution in classical electrodynamics. In both cases the static limit at the photon point is taken analytically and subsequently the integration over the relative energy variables is done. Finally the vertex functions are replaced by Salpeter amplitudes and the expression is symmetrized over the three fermions. The final results express the charge radius and magnetic moment of the three-fermion system as expectation values with respect to Salpeter amplitudes. The numerical implementation of the analytic results is done within a covariant constituent quark model with quark confinement and a residual instanton interaction accounting for the fine structure of the observed mass spectra. The Salpeter amplitudes which where obtained by solving the Salpeter equation are used to compute the expectation values of the charge radius and magnetic moment operators. The charge radii and magnetic moments of the baryon octet are thus obtained. A study on the dependence of the contributions of quark spins and orbital angular momenta to the total magnetic moment on the constituent quark mass reveals that at a quark mass of 330 MeV roughly ninety percent are due to spin. The calculated values for the hyperon radii and magnetic moments of selected excited states as well as mostly the baryon decuplet are predictions. (orig.)