Effective Hamiltonian for bound states in Yukawa theory

A generalization of the Gell-Mann-Low theorem is applied to lowest nontrivial order to determine an effective Hamiltonian for two-fermion states in relativistic Yukawa theory. The consistency of the corresponding effective Schrödinger equation is thoroughly investigated in various aspects, among others the nonrelativistic and one-body limits, and the small-distance or large-momentum regime of the bound state solutions is discussed in detail.