The wave function of a composite system is defined in relativity on a space-time surface. In the explicitly covariant light-front dynamics, reviewed in the present article, the wave functions are defined on the plane omega . x = 0, where w is an arbitrary four-vector with omega(2) = 0. The standard non-covariant approach is recovered as a particular case for omega = (1, 0, 0, - 1). Using the light-front plane is of crucial importance, while the explicit covariance gives strong advantages emphasized through all the review. The properties of the relativistic few-body wave functions are discussed in detail and are illustrated by examples in a solvable model. The three-dimensional graph technique for the calculation of amplitudes in the covariant light-front perturbation theory is presented. The structure of the electromagnetic amplitudes is studied. We investigate the ambiguities which arise in any approximate light-front calculations, and which lead to a non-physical dependence of the electromagnetic amplitude on the orientation of the light-front plane. The elastic and transition form factors free from these ambiguities are found for spin 0, 1/2 and 1 systems. The formalism is applied to the calculation of the relativistic wave functions of two-nucleon systems (deuteron and scattering state), with particular attention to the role of their new components in the deuteron elastic and electrodisintegration form factors and to their connection with meson exchange currents. Straightforward applications to the pion and nucleon form factors and the p - pi transition are also made. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. [References: 144]
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