We investigate the rare radiative eta decay modes eta -> pi+ pi- gamma gamma and eta -> pi0 pi0 gamma gamma within the framework of chiral lagrangians at o(p^4) and present photon spectra for both processes.
The ratio R_{eta}=Gamma(eta -> pi^+pi^-gamma)/Gamma(eta -> pi^+pi^-pi^0) has been measured by analyzing 22 million phi to eta gamma decays collected by the KLOE experiment at DAPhiNE, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 558 pb^{-1}. The eta to pi^+pi^-gamma proceeds both via the rho resonant contribution, and possibly a non-resonant direct term, connected to the box anomaly. Our result, R_{eta}= 0.1856pm 0.0005_{stat} pm 0.0028_{syst}, points out a sizable contribution of the direct term to the total width. The di-pion invariant mass for the eta -> pi^+pi^-gamma decay could be described in a model-independent approach in terms of a single free parameter, alpha. The determined value of the parameter alpha is alpha = (1.32 pm 0.08_{stat} +0.10/-0.09_{syst}pm 0.02_{theo}) GeV^{-2}
We report the measurement of the ratio $Gamma(eta to pi^+pi^-gamma)/Gamma(eta to pi^+pi^-pi^0)$ analyzing a large sample of $phi to eta gamma$ decays recorded with the KLOE experiment at the DA$Phi$NE $e^+ e^-$ collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 558 pb$^{-1}$. The $eta to pi^+pi^-gamma$ process is supposed to proceed both via a resonant contribution, mediated by the $rho$ meson, and a non resonant direct term, connected to the box anomaly. The presence of the direct term affects the partial width value. Our result $R_{eta}=Gamma(eta to pi^+ pi^- gamma)/Gamma(eta to pi^+ pi^- pi^0)= 0.1838pm 0.0005_{stat} pm 0.0030_{syst}$ is in agreement with a recent CLEO measurement, which differs by more 3 $sigma$ from the average of previous results.
The claim that the light quark mass ratio (m_d - m_u)/m_s can be extracted from the decay width ratio Gamma(eta -> pi^0 pi^+ pi^-)/Gamma(eta -> eta pi^+ pi^-) is critically investigated within a U(3) chiral unitary framework. The influence of the recent VES data on the eta -> eta pi^+ pi^- decay is also discussed.
An exclusive measurement of the decay eta --> pi+ pi- gamma has been performed at the WASA facility at COSY. The eta mesons were produced in the fusion reaction pd --> 3He X at a proton beam momentum of 1.7 GeV/c. Efficiency corrected differential distributions have been extracted based on 13340pm140 events after background subtraction. The measured pion angular distribution is consistent with a relative p-wave of the two-pion system, whereas the measured photon energy spectrum was found at variance with the simplest gauge invariant matrix element of eta --> pi+ pi- gamma. A parameterization of the data can be achieved by the additional inclusion of the empirical pion vector form factor multiplied by a first-order polynomial in the squared invariant mass of the pi+ pi- system.
The $eta to pi^+ pi^- pi^0 gamma$ decay is discussed in the general context of Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT), assuming that the low--energy constants (counter--terms) are saturated by vector-meson resonances. The $eta to pi^+ pi^- pi^0 gamma$ amplitude can be separated in two distinct pieces: the inner bremsstrahlung, $A^{(IB)}$, and the structure dependent (or direct emission), $A^{(SD)}$, amplitudes. The former -- which essentially contains the same physics as $A(eta to pi^+ pi^- pi^0)$ -- is found to dominate over the second one -- which looks more interesting from the ChPT point of view.