A relativistic point-form approach to quark-antiquark systems

We develop a formalism for the treatment of a two-particle system interacting via one-boson exchange in the point form of relativistic quantum mechanics. A Poincare invariant coupled-channel treatment leads to a generalized eigenvalue equation for the mass operator of the system. The formalism is applied to vector mesons in a constituent-quark picture including confinement for the quark and antiquark degrees of freedom. A dynamical equation which yields a mass spectrum is solved by the use of a resonance condition. The results are used to examine relativistic effects as compared to earlier calculations and they are also compared to experimental data. (author)