Regularizing the divergent structure of light-front currents

The divergences appearing in the (3+1)-dimensional fermion-loop calculations are often regulated by smearing the vertices in a covariant manner. Performing a parallel light-front calculation, we corroborate the similarity between the vertex-smearing technique and the Pauli-Villars regularization. In the light-front calculation of the electromagnetic meson current, we find that the persistent end-point singularity that appears in the case of point vertices is removed even if the smeared vertex is taken to the limit of the point vertex. Recapitulating the current conservation, we substantiate the finiteness of both valence and nonvalence contributions in all components of the current with the regularized bound-state vertex. However, we stress that each contribution, valence or nonvalence, depends on the reference frame even though the sum is always frame independent. The numerical taxonomy of each contribution including the instantaneous contribution and the zero-mode contribution is presented in the π, K, and D-meson form factors.