Scalar radius of the pion and two photons into two pions. Strong S-wave final state interactions

Abstract

The quadratic pion scalar radius, <r^2>^π_s, plays an important role for present precise determinations of ππscattering. The solution of the Muskhelishvili-Omnès equations for the non-strange null isospin (I) pion scalar form factor determines that <r^2>^π_s=(0.61\pm 0.04) fm^2. However, by using an Omnès representation of this form factor, Ynduráin recently obtains <r^2>^π_s=(0.75\pm 0.07) fm^2. A large discrepancy between both values, given the precision, then results. We show that Ynduráin's method is indeed compatible with the determinations from the Muskhelishvili-Omnès equations once a zero in the scalar form factor for some S-wave I=0 T-matrices is considered. Once this is accounted for, the resulting value is <r^2>^π=(0.63\pm 0.05) fm^2. On the other hand, we perform a theoretical study of the reaction γγ\to π^0π^0 based on dispersion relations. The large source of uncertainty for \sqrt{s}\gtrsim 0.5 GeV, due to variations in the phase used in the Omnès function above the K\bar{K} threshold, is removed by taking one more subtraction in the dispersion relation. This allows us to make sharper predictions for the cross section so that one could use this reaction to distinguish between different low energy ππparameterizations, once independent experiments are available. We also study the role played by the σor f_0(600) meson in this reaction and determine its width to two photons.

10 pages, 1 figure. Invited talk at the 11th International Conference on Meson-Nucleon Physics and the Structure of the Nucleon (MENU 2007), September 10-14, 2007, IKP, Forschungzentrum Jülich, Germany