Semileptonic decays of charmed mesons in the effective action of QCD

Within the framework of phenomenological Lagrangians we construct the effective action of QCD relevant for the study of semileptonic decays of charmed mesons. Hence we evaluate the form factors of D -> P(0^-) l^+ nu_l at leading order in the 1/N_C expansion and, by demanding their QCD-ruled asymptotic behaviour, we constrain the couplings of the Lagrangian. The features of the model-independent parameterization of form factors provided and their relevance for the analysis of experimental data are pointed out.Comment: 1+24 pages, 1 figure. Updated version. Conclusions unchanged. Accepted for publication in The European Physical Journal

QCD Isospin Breaking in Meson Masses, Decay Constants and Quark Mass Ratios

The procedure to calculate masses and matrix-elements in the presence of mixing of the basis states is explained in detail. We then apply this procedure to the two-loop calculation in Chiral Perturbation Theory of pseudoscalar masses and decay constants including quark mass isospin breaking. These results are used to update our analysis of $K_{\ell4}$ done previously and obtain a value of $m_u/m_d$ in addition to values for the low-energy-constants $L_i^r$.Comment: 22 pages, uses axodraw.st

An example of resonance saturation at one loop

We argue that the large-Nc expansion of QCD can be used to treat a Lagrangian of resonances in a perturbative way. As an illustration of this we compute the L_10 coupling of the Chiral Lagrangian by integrating out resonance fields at one loop. Given a Lagrangian and a renormalization scheme, this is how in principle one can answer in a concrete and unambiguous manner questions such as at what scale resonance saturation takes place.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures. Enlarged discussion, results unchanged. To be published in Phys. Rev.

πK\pi K Scattering in Three Flavour ChPT

We present the scattering lengths for the $\pi K$ processes in the three flavour Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT) framework at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO). The calculation has been performed analytically but we only include analytical results for the dependence on the low-energy constants (LECs) at NNLO due to the size of the expressions. These results, together with resonance estimates of the NNLO LECs are used to obtain constraints on the Zweig rule suppressed LECs at NLO, $L_4^r$ and $L_6^r$. Contrary to expectations from NLO order calculations we find them to be compatible with zero. We do a preliminary study of combining the results from $\pi\pi$ scattering, $\pi K$ scattering and the scalar form-factors and find only a marginal compatibility with all experimental/dispersive input data.Comment: 23 page

The Inverse Amplitude Method in ππ\pi\pi Scattering in Chiral Perturbation Theory to Two Loops

The inverse amplitude method is used to unitarize the two loop $\pi\pi$ scattering amplitudes of SU(2) Chiral Perturbation Theory in the $I=0,J=0$, $I=1,J=1$ and $I=2,J=0$ channels. An error analysis in terms of the low energy one-loop parameters $\bar l_{1,2,3,4,}$ and existing experimental data is undertaken. A comparison to standard resonance saturation values for the two loop coefficients $\bar b_{1,2,3,4,5,6}$ is also carried out. Crossing violations are quantified and the convergence of the expansion is discussed.Comment: (Latex, epsfig) 30 pages, 13 figures, 8 table

Meson resonances, large N_c and chiral symmetry

We investigate the implications of large N_c and chiral symmetry for the mass spectra of meson resonances. Unlike for most other mesons, the mass matrix of the light scalars deviates strongly from its large-N_c limit. We discuss the possible assignments for the lightest scalar nonet that survives in the large-N_c limit.Comment: 14 page

The electromagnetic effects in Ke4K_{e4} decay

The final state interaction of pions in $K_{e4}$ decay allows one to obtain the value of the isospin and angular momentum zero $\pi\pi$ scattering length $a_0^0$.We take into account the electromagnetic interaction of pions and isospin symmetry breaking effects caused by different masses of neutral and charged pions and estimate the impact of these effects on the procedure of scattering length extraction from $K_{e4}$ decay.Comment: 8 pages,1 figur

The epsilon expansion at next-to-next-to-leading order with small imaginary chemical potential

We discuss chiral perturbation theory for two and three quark flavors in the epsilon expansion at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) including a small imaginary chemical potential. We calculate finite-volume corrections to the low-energy constants $\Sigma$ and $F$ and determine the non-universal modifications of the theory, i.e., modifications that cannot be mapped to random matrix theory (RMT). In the special case of two quark flavors in an asymmetric box we discuss how to minimize the finite-volume corrections and non-universal modifications by an optimal choice of the lattice geometry. Furthermore we provide a detailed calculation of a special version of the massless sunset diagram at finite volume.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure

Strong Interactions at Low Energy

The lectures review some of the basic concepts relevant for an understanding of the low energy properties of the strong interactions: chiral symmetry, spontaneous symmetry breakdown, Goldstone bosons, quark condensate. The effective field theory used to analyze the low energy structure is briefly sketched. As an illustration, I discuss the implications of the recent data on the decay $K\to \pi\pi e\nu$ for the magnitude of the quark condensate.Comment: Lectures given at the school of physics "Understanding the structure of hadrons", Prague, July 2001, 20 p