The low-energy theorem of pion photoproduction using the Skyrme model

Abstract

Abstract We reassess the validity of the current-algebra based low-energy theorem of pion photoproduction on the nucleon using the Skyrme model. We find that one of the off-shell electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon exhibits infrared divergence in the chiral limit. This contribution introduces an additional term to the threshold amplitude predicted by the low-energy theorem. The emergence of the additional term indicates an unavoidable necessity of off-shell form factors in deriving the low-energy theorem. In the case of neutral pion production, the new contribution to the threshold amplitude is found to be comparable in magnitude to the low-energy theorem's prediction and has the opposite sign. In the charged pion production channels, the correction to the theorem is shown to be relatively small.