Four Pion Final States with Tagged Photons at Electron Positron Colliders

A Monte Carlo generator has been constructed to simulate the reaction e^+e^- \to \gamma + 4 \pi, where the photon is assumed to be observed in the detector. Only initial state radiation is considered. Additional collinear photon radiation has been incorporated with the technique of structure functions. Predictions are presented for cms energies of 1GeV, 3GeV and 10GeV, corresponding to the energies of DAPHNE, BEBC and of B-meson factories. The event rates are sufficiently high to allow for a precise measurement of R(Q^2) in the region of Q between approximately 1GeV and 2.5GeV. For the construction of the program we employ isospin relations between the amplitudes governing tau decays into four pions and electron positron annihilation into four pions. Estimates of the kinematic breaking of these isospin relations as a consequence of the \pi^- -- \pi^0 mass difference are given.Comment: LATEX, 27 pages, 9 figures, discussion of the kinematic breaking of isospin relations extended, typos corrected, some formulations change

Precision measurement of the hadronic cross-section through the radiative return method

Electron--positron annihilation into hadrons plus an energetic photon from initial-state radiation allows the hadronic cross-section to be measured over a wide range of energies at high luminosity meson factories. Weighted integrals over this cross-section are a decisive input for electroweak precision tests. A Monte Carlo event generator called PHOKHARA has been developed, which simulates $e^+ e^- \to$ hadrons + photon(s) at the NLO accuracy. The latest tests and upgrades are presented in this paper.Comment: Talk given at 7th International Workshop on Tau Lepton Physics (TAU 02), Santa Cruz, California, 10-13 Sep 2002. TAU-2002-WE06. 10 pages, 12 figure

Radiative return at NLO and the measurement of the hadronic cross-section in electron-positron annihilation

Electron-positron annihilation into hadrons plus an energetic photon from initial state radiation allows the hadronic cross-section to be measured over a wide range of energies. The full next-to-leading order QED corrections for the cross-section for e^+ e^- annihilation into a real tagged photon and a virtual photon converting into hadrons are calculated where the tagged photon is radiated off the initial electron or positron. This includes virtual and soft photon corrections to the process e^+ e^- \to \gamma +\gamma^* and the emission of two real hard photons: e^+ e^- \to \gamma + \gamma + \gamma^*. A Monte Carlo generator has been constructed, which incorporates these corrections and simulates the production of two charged pions or muons plus one or two photons. Predictions are presented for centre-of-mass energies between 1 and 10 GeV, corresponding to the energies of DAPHNE, CLEO-C and B-meson factories.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figure

Perspectives for the radiative return at meson factories

The measurement of the pion form factor and, more generally, of the cross section for electron-positron annihilation into hadrons through the radiative return has become an important task for high luminosity colliders such as the Phi- or B-meson factories. This quantity is crucial for predictions of the hadronic contributions to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, and to the running of the electromagnetic coupling. But the radiative return opens the possibility of many other physical applications. The physics potential of this method at high luminosity meson factories is discussed, the last upgraded version of the event generator PHOKHARA is presented, and future developments are highlighted.Comment: Presented at SIGHAD03: Worskhop on Hadronic Cross Section at Low Energy, Pisa,Italy, October 8th-10th, 200