We introduce diquarks as separable correlations in the two-quark Green’s function to facilitate the description of baryons as relativistic three-quark bound states. These states then emerge as solutions of Bethe-Salpeter equations for quarks and diquarks that interact via quark exchange. When solving these equations we consider various dressing functions for the free quark and diquark propagators that prohibit the existence of corresponding asymptotic states and thus effectively parametrize confinement. We study the implications of qualitatively different dressing functions on the model predictions for the masses of the octet baryons as well as the electromagnetic and strong form factors of the nucleon. For different dressing functions we in particular compare the predictions for kaon photoproduction, $\gamma \overrightarrow{p}K\Lambda ,$ and associated strangeness production, $p\overrightarrow{p}\mathrm{pK}\Lambda ,$ with experimental data. This leads to conclusions on the permissibility of different dressing functions.

• Received 21 December 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.64.014004