We present a calculation of pion photo- and electroproduction in manifestly Lorentz-invariant baryon chiral perturbation theory up to and including order q^4. We fix the low-energy constants by fitting experimental data in all available reaction channels. Our results can be accessed via a web interface, the so-called chiral MAID.
We discuss the extended on-mass-shell scheme for manifestly Lorentz-invariant baryon chiral perturbation theory. We present a calculation of pion photo- and electroproduction up to and including order $q^4$. The low-energy constants have been fixed by fitting experimental data in all available reaction channels. Our results can be accessed via a web interface, the so-called chiral MAID (http://www.kph.uni-mainz.de/MAID/chiralmaid/).
A theory of two-pion photo- and electroproduction off the nucleon is derived considering all explicit three-body mechanisms of the interacting $pipi N$ system. The full three-body dynamics of the interacting $pipi N$ system is accounted for by the Faddeev-type ordering structure of the Alt-Grassberger-Sandhas equations. The formulation is valid for hadronic two-point and three-point functions dressed by arbitrary internal mechanisms provided all associated electromagnetic currents are constructed to satisfy their respective (generalized) Ward-Takahashi identities. It is shown that coupling the photon to the Faddeev structure of the underlying hadronic two-pion production mechanisms results in a natural expansion of the full two-pion photoproduction current $M_{pipi}^mu$ in terms of multiple dressed loops involving two-body subsystem scattering amplitudes of the $pipi N$ system that preserves gauge invariance as a matter of course order by order in the number of (dressed) loops. A closed-form expression is presented for the entire gauge-invariant current $M_{pipi}^mu$ with complete three-body dynamics. Individually gauge-invariant truncations of the full dynamics most relevant for practical applications at the no-loop, one-loop, and two-loop levels are discussed in detail. An approximation scheme to the full two-pion amplitude for calculational purposes is also presented. It approximates, systematically, the full amplitude to any desired order of expansion in the underlying hadronic two-body amplitude. Moreover, it allows for the approximate incorporation of all neglected higher-order mechanisms in terms of a phenomenological remainder current. The effect and phenomenological usefulness of this remainder current is assessed in a tree-level calculation of the $gamma N to K K Xi$ reaction.
Exclusive $pi^+pi^-p$ photo- and electroproduction data from CLAS have considerably extended the information on the spectrum and structure of nucleon resonances. The data from the $pi^+pi^-p$ and $Npi$ channels have provided results on the electrocouplings of most resonances in the mass region up to 1.8 GeV and at photon virtualities up to 5.0 GeV$^2$. The recent CLAS data on $pi^+pi^-p$ photoproduction have improved knowledge on the photocouplings of nucleon resonances in the mass range of 1.6 GeV $<$ $M_{N^*}$ $<$ 2.0 GeV and on their decays to the $pi Delta$ and $rho p$ final hadron states. For the first time, the electrocouplings of the $N(1440)1/2^+$ and $N(1520)3/2^-$ excited states have become available from $pi^+pi^-p$ data at 2.0 GeV$^2$ $<$ $Q^2$ $<$ 5.0 GeV$^2$. Analyses of the combined $pi^+pi^-p$ photo- and electroproduction data have revealed evidence for the candidate-state $N(1720)3/2^+$. The new results on the nucleon resonance spectrum, electroexcitation amplitudes from analysis of the CLAS $pi^+pi^-p$ photo- and electroproduction data, and their impact on the exploration of strong QCD are presented.
Pion electroproduction off the proton is analyzed in a new framework based on a general parametrization of transition amplitudes, including constraints from gauge invariance and threshold behavior. Data with energies $1.13~{rm GeV}<W<1.6~{rm GeV}$ and $Q^2$ below $6~{rm GeV}^2$ are included. The model is an extension of the latest Julich-Bonn solution incorporating constraints from pion-induced and photoproduction data. Performing large scale fits ($sim10^5$ data) we find a set of solutions with $chi^2_{rm dof}=1.69-1.81$ which allows us to assess the systematic uncertainty of the approach.
We present a gauge invariant approach to photoproduction of mesons on nucleons within a chiral unitary framework. The interaction kernel for meson-baryon scattering is derived from the chiral effective Lagrangian and iterated in a Bethe-Salpeter equation. Within the leading order approximation to the interaction kernel, data on kaon photoproduction from SAPHIR, CLAS and CBELSA/TAPS are analyzed in the threshold region. The importance of gauge invariance and the precision of various approximations in the interaction kernel utilized in earlier works are discussed.