Electromagnetic structure of the ρ meson in the light-front quark model -: art. no. 053015

We investigate the elastic form factors of the rho meson in the light-front quark model (LFQM). With the phenomenologically accessible meson vertices including the one obtained by the Melosh transformation frequently used in the LFQM, we find that only the helicity 0-->0 matrix element of the plus current receives the zero-mode contribution. We quantify the zero-mode contribution in the helicity 0-->0 amplitude using the angular condition of spin-1 system. After taking care of the zero-mode issue, we obtain the magnetic (mu) and quadrupole (Q) moments of the rho meson as mu=1.92 and Q=0.43, respectively, in the LFQM consistent with the Melosh transformation and compare our results with other available theoretical predictions.