Within the framework of the covariant formulation of light-front dynamics, we develop a general nonperturbative renormalization scheme based on the Fock decomposition of the state vector and its truncation. The counterterms and bare parameters needed to renormalize the theory depend on the Fock sectors. We present a general strategy in order to calculate these quantities, as well as state vectors of physical systems, in a truncated Fock space. The explicit dependence of our formalism on the orientation of the light-front plane is essential in order to analyze the structure of the counterterms. We apply our formalism to the two-body (one fermion and one boson) truncation in the Yukawa model and in QED, and to the three-body truncation in a scalar model. In QED, we recover analytically, without any perturbative expansion, the renormalization of the electric charge, according to the requirements of the Ward identity.

• Received 29 January 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.77.085028