  The electromagnetic interactions of a relativistic two-body bound state are
formulated in three dimensions using an equal-time (ET) formalism. This
involves a systematic reduction of four-dimensional dynamics to a
three-dimensional form by integrating out the time components of relative
momenta. A conserved electromagnetic current is developed for the ET formalism.
It is shown that consistent truncations of the electromagnetic current and the
$NN$ interaction kernel may be made, order-by-order in the coupling constants,
such that appropriate Ward-Takahashi identities are satisfied. A meson-exchange
model of the $NN$ interaction is used to calculate deuteron vertex functions.
Calculations of electromagnetic form factors for elastic scattering of
electrons by deuterium are performed using an impulse-approximation current.
Negative-energy components of the deuteron's vertex function and retardation
effects in the meson-exchange interaction are found to have only minor effects
on the deuteron form factors.
