Heavy mesons in a relativistic model

Motivated by the present interest in the heavy quark effective theory, we use the spectator equation to treat the mesonic bound states of heavy quarks. The kernel we use is based on scalar confining and vector Coulomb potentials. Wave functions are treated to leading order and energies to order 1/${\mathit{m}}_{\mathit{Q}}$ in the heavy-light systems, and order 1/${\mathit{m}}_{\mathit{Q}}^2$ in heavy-heavy systems. Our results are in reasonable agreement with experimental measurements. We estimate two of the parameters of the heavy quark effective theory, and propose further calculations that may be undertaken in the future.