# References

BUTP-99/30

Report of Working Group on Electromagnetic Corrections <sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1Talk given at Eighth International Symposium on Meson-Nucleon Physics and the Structure of the Nucleon (MENU99), Zuoz, Engadine, Switzerland, 15 - 21 August 1999.

A. Rusetsky

Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland,   
Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 141980 Dubna, Russia and   
HEPI, Tbilisi State University, 380086 Tbilisi, Georgia

## Abstract

The talks delivered by M. Knecht, H. Neufeld, V.E. Lyubovitskij, A. Rusetsky and J. Soto during the session of the working group of electromagnetic corrections to hadronic processes at the Eight International Symposium MENU99, cover a wide range of problems. In particular, those include: construction of the effective Lagrangians that then are used for the evaluation of electromagnetic corrections to the decays of $`K`$ mesons; evaluation of some of the low-energy constants in these Lagrangians, using sum rules and the large-$`N_c`$ arguments; complete calculations of electromagnetic corrections to the $`\pi \pi `$ scattering amplitude at $`O(e^2p^2)`$; the general theory of electromagnetic bound states of hadrons in the Standard Model.

The problem of unique disentangling of strong and electromagnetic interactions in hadronic transitions has been a long-standing challenge for theorists. All data obtained in high-energy physics experiments, contain a highly nontrivial interplay of strong and electromagnetic effects, with a huge difference in the interaction ranges. In addition, there are the isospin-breaking effects caused by the difference in quark masses that generally has a non-electromagnetic origin. In the analysis of the experimental data, however, one would prefer to unambiguously subtract all isospin-breaking corrections from the hadronic characteristics in order to obtain the quantities defined in ”pure QCD”, at equal quark masses – the case where the most of the theoretical predictions are done.

In the context of $`\pi N`$ scattering problem, the issue of the electromagnetic corrections has been extensively studied by using the dispersion relations , and the potential model . The closely related problem of electromagnetic corrections to the energy-level shift and decay width to the pionic hydrogen and pionic deuterium was analyzed again by using the potential model . Both above approaches are based upon the certain assumptions about the precise mechanism of incorporation of electromagnetic effects in the strong sector, provided that the details of strong interactions are unknown. It remains, however, unclear, how to estimate the systematic error caused by these assumptions or, in other words, how to consistently include within these approaches all isospin-breaking effects which are present in the Standard Model. Given the fact, that the above approaches are used for the partial-wave analysis of $`\pi N`$ scattering data and the measurements of $`\pi ^{}p`$, $`\pi ^{}d`$ atom characteristics that result in the independent determinations of values of the $`S`$-wave $`\pi N`$ scattering lengths, the consistent treatment of the isospin-breaking effects might be helpful for understanding the discrepancies between the results of different analyses.

Further, the problem of the systematic treatment of electromagnetic corrections is crucial for the analysis of experimental data on the decays of $`K`$ mesons. In particular, the study of $`K_{l4}`$ decays that at present time is performed by E865 collaboration at BNL , and by KLOE at DA$`\mathrm{\Phi }`$NE facility (LNF-INFN) , will enable one to measure the parameters of the low-energy $`\pi \pi `$ interaction and thus provide an extremely valuable information about the nature of strong interactions at low energy. Preliminary results  are so far obtained in the negligence of the electromagnetic effects which might significantly affect the amplitudes in the threshold region.

Last but not least, a complete inclusion of electromagnetic corrections is needed in order to fully exploit the high-precision data on hadronic atoms provided by the DIRAC collaboration at CERN ($`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$), DEAR collaboration at DA$`\mathrm{\Phi }`$NE ($`K^{}p`$, $`K^{}d`$) , by the experiments at PSI ($`\pi ^{}p`$, $`\pi ^{}d`$), KEK ($`K^{}p`$), etc. These experiments, that allow for the direct determination of the hadronic scattering lengths from the measured characteristics of hadronic atoms: level energies and decay widths, contribute significantly to our knowledge of the properties of QCD in the low-energy regime. In particular, the measurement of the difference of the $`S`$-wave $`\pi \pi `$ scattering lengths $`a_0a_2`$ by the DIRAC experiment will allow one to distinguish between the large/small condensate scenarios of chiral symmetry breaking in QCD: should it turn out that the measured value of $`a_0a_2`$ differs from the prediction of standard ChPT , one has to conclude that the symmetry breaking in QCD proceeds differently  from the standard picture. Further, the $`\pi N`$ scattering length $`a_{0+}^{}`$ that is measured by the experiments on pionic hydrogen and pionic deuterium, can be used as an input to determine the $`\pi NN`$ coupling constant, and from the precise knowledge of $`KN`$ scattering lengths one might extract the new information about e.g. the kaon-sigma term and the strangeness content of the nucleon.

According to the modern point of view, the low-energy interactions of Goldstone bosons (pions, kaons…) in QCD can be consistently described by using the language of effective chiral Lagrangians. The amplitudes of the processes involving these particles below $`1\mathrm{GeV}`$ can be systematically expanded in series over the external momenta of Goldstone particles and light quark masses. All nonperturbative QCD dynamics is than contained in the so-called low-energy constants of the effective Lagrangian, and only a finite number of those contribute at a given order in this expansion. These constants should be, in principle, calculable from QCD. However, at the present stage they are considered to be free parameters to be determined from the fit to the experimental data . The approach can be generalized to the sector with baryon number equal to $`1`$ or $`2`$ . Moreover, the approach allows for the systematic inclusion of electromagnetic interactions – albeit at the cost of the increased number of low-energy constants in the effective Lagrangian . These new ”electromagnetic” low-energy constants describe the high-energy processes corresponding to the direct interaction of quarks with photons, and thus contribute the missing piece to the potential-type models – in the latter, generally, only the long-range part of the electromagnetic interactions, corresponding to the photon exchange between different hadrons, is taken into account. From the size of the effect coming from the ”electromagnetic” low-energy constants, along with other missing sources of electromagnetic corrections (see below), one can therefore have a judgment on the systematic error caused by the choice of the potential-type models.

From the above, it seems that the most nontrivial task that one encounters in the systematic treatment of the electromagnetic interactions in the low-energy hadronic processes, is related to the determination of the precise values of the ”electromagnetic” low-energy constants in the effective low-energy Lagrangians that, at the present time, are rather poorly known. Different methods have been used to this end so far. The resonance saturation method was used  to evaluate these constants in the $`O(e^2p^2)`$ Lagrangian with Goldsone bosons. Further, in Ref.  it was demonstrated that these constants can be expressed as a convolution of a QCD correlation function with the photon propagator, plus a contribution from the QED counterterms. The sum rules were then used to evaluate these constants . Somewhat different approach to the calculation of these constants was used in . The results of these approaches do not all agree. One important lesson, however, can be immediately drawn: since these low-energy constants turn out to be dependent on the QCD scale $`\mu _0`$ that should be introduced in the QCD Lagrangian after taking into account the electromagnetic corrections , the naive separation of the isospin-breaking effects into the ”electromagnetic” and ”strong” parts, the latter corresponding to the difference of quark masses, does not hold in general and can be carried out only in certain observables at a certain chiral order. Generally, both these parts are dependent on QCD scale $`\mu _0`$ that then cancels in the sum. For this reason, hereafter, we would prefer to speak about the isospin-breaking corrections to the physical observables, rather then consider individual contributions to it.

The session of the working group of electromagnetic corrections at MENU99 symposium was designed to cover all important steps of the treatment of isospin-breaking corrections on the basis of modern effective theories: starting from the construction of the effective Lagrangians containing non-QCD degrees of freedom – photons and leptons, and from the examples of the determination of some of the non-QCD low-energy constants, using sum rules and large $`N_c`$ arguments, to the actual application of the framework to the calculation of physical quantities: $`P_{l2}`$ and $`P\mathrm{}^+\mathrm{}^{}`$ decay rates, $`\pi \pi `$ scattering amplitudes, as well as observables of $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ and $`\pi ^{}p`$ hadronic atoms – energy levels and decay characteristics.

A construction of a low-energy effective field theory which allows the full treatment of isospin-breaking effects in semileptonic weak interactions, was discussed in the talk of H. Neufeld  (see also  for more details). In addition to the pseudoscalars and the photon, also the light leptons were included as dynamical degrees of freedom in an appropriate chiral Lagrangian: only within such a framework, one will have full control over all possible isospin breaking effects in the analysis of new high statistics $`K_\mathrm{}4`$ experiments by the E865 and KLOE collaborations. The same methods are also necessary for the interpretation of forthcoming high precision experiments on other semileptonic decays like $`K_\mathrm{}3`$, etc.

The one-loop functional in the presence of leptonic sources was evaluated by using the superheat kernel technique . At next-to-leading order, the list of low-energy constants has to be enlarged as compared to the case of QCD+photons. If only the terms at most quadratic in lepton fields, and at most linear in Fermi coupling $`G_F`$ are considered, the number of additional low-energy constants $`X_i,i=1\mathrm{}7`$ is equal to $`7`$. Further, regarding ”pure” lepton or photon bilinears as ”trivial”, only three from the remaining five low-energy constants will contribute to realistic physical processes. One may therefore conclude that the inclusion of virtual leptons in chiral perturbation theory proceeds at a rather moderate cost.

As an immediate application of the formalism, a full set of electromagnetic corrections to $`P_{l2}`$ decays were calculated. It was demonstrated that, in some specific combinations of widths of different decay processes, the ”new” low-energy constants cancel, thus leading to the predictions at the one-loop order that do not depend on the parameters $`X_i`$. A full calculation of the electromagnetic corrections to the $`K_{l3},K_{l4}`$ processes is in progress.

As it is evident, the question of actual evaluation of a large number of low-energy constants lies at a heart of the successful application of the effective Lagrangian approach. In the talk by M. Knecht, the evaluation of one of such low-energy constants that contributes to the decays of pseudoscalars into lepton pairs, was given on the basis of sum rules and large $`N_c`$ arguments (for more details, see ). In the large $`N_c`$ limit, the QCD spectrum consists of a tower of infinitely narrow resonances in each channel. Employing further the so-called Lowest Meson Dominance (LDM) approximation that implies the truncation of the infinite sum over resonances in the sum rules, one can relate the low-energy constants to the known parameters of the low-lying resonances. It was demonstrated that using the value of the particular low-energy constant determined in the LDM approximation leads to the values of ratio of branching ratios $`Br(P\mathrm{}^+\mathrm{}^{})/Br(P\gamma \gamma )`$ for the processes $`\pi ^0e^+e^{}`$ and $`\eta \mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ that are consistent with the present experimental data. The predictions for the same value in the process $`\eta e^+e^{}`$ were also given.

As another application of the effective theories, in the talk by M. Knecht  (see also ) a complete calculation of the electromagnetic corrections to the $`\pi ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ and $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ scattering amplitudes at $`O(e^2p^2)`$ has been performed. The latter case is particularly interesting since the the results can be directly translated into the corrections to the decay width of the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ atom. It turns out that the size of isospin-breaking corrections to the $`\pi \pi `$ scattering amplitudes is of the same order of magnitude that the two-loop strong corrections and, therefore, can not be neglected.

Bound states of hadrons in chiral effective theories – hadronic atoms – were considered in the talks by J. Soto, V. Lyubovitskij and A. Rusetsky . It was demonstrated that, a systematic evaluation of isospin-breaking corrections to the observable characteristics of this sort of bound systems is possible order by order in ChPT. To this end, a nonrelativistic effective Lagrangian approach was used, that provides the necessary bridge between the bound-state characteristics and the scattering $`S`$-matrix elements in a most elegant and economical manner: at the end, according to the matching condition of relativistic and nonrelativistic theories, these characteristics are expressed in terms of the scattering matrix elements calculated in the relativistic theory, and to the latter one can apply the conventional machinery of ChPT.

The talk by J. Soto  (details – in Ref. ) was focused on the foundations of the nonrelativistic effective Lagrangian approach as applied to the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ atom decay problem. Different scales relevant for the problem of interest have been thoroughly discussed and disentangled. It has been demonstrated that, matching the parameters of the nonrelativistic Lagrangian to the relativistic theory, it is possible to evaluate the decay width of the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ atom order by order in ChPT.

The nonrelativistic effective Lagrangian approach was applied to the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ atom decay problem as well in the talk by V. Lyubovitskij  (see  for more details). It was demonstrated, however, that employing the different technique for matching of relativistic and nonrelativistic theories, it is possible to obtain the general expression for the decay width of the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ atom in the first nonleading order in isospin breaking, without an explicit use of chiral expansion – that is, the result is valid in all orders in ChPT. At order $`O(e^2p^2)`$ in ChPT, one may use the results of calculations by Knecht and Urech  – in this manner, it was demonstrated that the one-loop corrections to the decay width are rather small, including the uncertainty coming from the ”strong” and ”electromagnetic” low-energy constants. The bulk of total correction is given already by the tree-level diagram that is free from this uncertainty. The results given in the talk by V. Lyubovitskij, finalize the treatment of the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ atom decay problem: the width is now known to a sufficient accuracy that allows one to fully exploit the future precision data from DIRAC experiment at CERN.

In the talk by A. Rusetsky  the nonrelativistic effective Lagrangian approach was applied to the calculation of the energy of the ground state of the $`\pi ^{}p`$ atom. At this example, one can fully acknowledge the might and flexibility of the nonrelativistic approach: the spin-dependent part of the problem trivializes, and the treatment proceeds very similarly to the case of the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ atom. However, the isospin-breaking piece of the relativistic scattering amplitude in the $`\pi ^{}p`$ case already at the tree level (order $`p^2`$) contains both ”strong” and ”electromagnetic” low-energy constants. This part of the isospin-symmetry breaking effect is missing in the potential model . From the explicit expression of the $`\pi ^{}p`$ scattering amplitude at $`O(p^2)`$, one can immediately identify two distinct sources of isospin-breaking corrections that are not present in the potential model. The terms that depend on the quark masses in the strong part of the $`\pi ^{}p`$ amplitude, contribute to the isospin-breaking piece – this contribution is proportional to charged and neutral pion mass difference. In addition, the direct quark-photon interaction that is encoded in the ”electromagnetic” low-energy constants, also contributes to the isospin breaking. Uncertainty introduced by the poor knowledge of these low-energy constants is, unlike the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ case, much larger as compared to the estimate based on the potential model – thus, the latter considerably underestimates the systematic error in the analysis of the pionic hydrogen data provided by the experiment at PSI.

To summarize, I shall briefly dwell on the developments that are foreseen in the nearest future.

$``$ A complete treatment of the isospin-breaking corrections to $`K_{l3}`$ and $`K_{l4}`$ decays on the basis of modern effective field theories that are now in progress, is of a great importance for the analysis of precision data samples from E865 (BNL) and KLOE (LNF-INFN) experiments.

$``$ For the systematic treatment of the isospin-breaking corrections, the knowledge of the precise values of the low-energy constants that enter the effective Lagrangian, is necessary. In particular, this concerns the values of ”electromagnetic” low-energy constants which are poorly known. Activities based on sum rules, resonance saturation models, etc. may provide an extremely useful information in this respect.

$``$ At present, the problem of $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ atom decay is completely understood, both conceptually and numerically. The expected high-precision data from DIRAC experiment, therefore, can be used to determine the difference of the $`\pi \pi `$ $`S`$-wave scattering lengths $`a_0a_2`$ quite accurately. In the contrary, the issue of the isospin-breaking corrections to the observables of pionic hydrogen (and pionic deuterium) needs to be further investigated. The uncertainty due to the poor knowledge of low-energy constants in the isospin-breaking part of the $`\pi N`$ scattering amplitude is large already at tree level, and the evaluation of one-loop contributions are in progress. These studies will be even more important for the future improved experiment at PSI  that intends to measure the $`S`$-wave $`\pi N`$ scattering lengths, using the data from the pionic hydrogen alone. A detailed investigation of the properties of the kaonic atoms which will be studied by the DEAR collaboration at DA$`\mathrm{\Phi }`$NE, is planned.

$``$ The success of the nonrelativistic Lagrangian approach to the hadronic atom problem clearly demonstrates that the formalism of the potential model based on Schrödinger-type equations, can be applied to the evaluation of the isospin-breaking corrections, provided the potential contains a full content of isospin-symmetry breaking effects of the Standard Model. Therefore, it will be extremely important to set up a systematic framework for the derivation of the potentials from the effective field-theoretical Lagrangians – then, the already existing machinery of the potential model can be directly exploited.

Acknowledgments. I would like to thank the organizers of MENU99 symposium for their large effort, that created an atmosphere of intense discussions and learning, and J. Gasser for reading the manuscript. This work was supported in part by the Swiss National Science Foundation, and by TMR, BBW-Contract No. 97.0131 and EC-Contract No. ERBFMRX-CT980169 (EURODA$`\mathrm{\Phi }`$NE).