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/). We explain how our program works and how it can be used for further analysis.
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/).
The relativistic amplitudes of pion photo- and electroproduction are calculated by dispersion relations at constant t. Several sum rules and low-energy theorems for the threshold amplitudes are investigated within this technique. The continuation of the amplitudes to sub-threshold kinematics is shown to provide a unique framework to derive the low-energy constants of chiral perturbation theory by global properties of the excitation spectrum.
Neutral pion photo- and electroproduction at threshold is analyzed in the framework of dispersion relations. For this purpose, we evaluate the real threshold amplitudes in terms of Born contributions and dispersion integrals determined by the imaginary parts of the MAID and SAID multipoles. The results show considerable cancellations between Born terms and resonance contributions. Good agreement with the data is found for photoproduction. While our dispersion analysis suggests considerable discrepancies for electroproduction, the present state of the experimental multipole analysis at finite Q^2 does not permit drawing conclusions at this time.
Recent attempts to determine the pion polarizability by dispersion relations yield values that disagree with the predictions of chiral perturbation theory. These dispersion relations are based on specific forms for the absorptive part of the Compton amplitudes. The analytic properties of these forms are examined, and the strong enhancement of intermediate-meson contributions is shown to be connected with spurious singularities. If the basic requirements of dispersion relations are taken into account, the results of dispersion theory and effective field theory are not inconsistent.
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.