Separability, gauge invariance and nonsuperluminality in direct interaction dynamics

Abstract

We discuss the classical mechanics of relativistic systems with direct interaction. We show that various desiderata can all be accommodated in the single time approach by restricting the observables to the gauge invariant variables. We show how such observables can be constructed in general. We explicitly construct position observables in a general system and show that they lead to separable, invariant world lines. Nonsuperluminality is explicitly demonstrated for two body systems interacting via central forces of semibounded magnitude provided they ensure timelike canonical momenta. For two particles, our results reproduce the usual solution in covariant equal-time gauge.