Non-perturbative dynamics of the heavy-light quark system in the non-recoil limit

Starting from the relativistic gauge-invariant quark-antiquark Green function we obtain the relevant interaction in the one-body limit, which can be interpreted as the kernel of a non-perturbative Dirac equation, We study this kernel in different kinematic regions, reproducing, in particular, for heavy quark the potential case and sum rules results. We discuss the relevance of the result for heavy-light mesons and the relation with the phenomenological Dirac equations used up to now in the literature. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.