Hadron Production via e+e- Collisions with Initial State Radiation

A novel method of studying e+e- annihilation into hadrons using initial state radiation at e+e- colliders is described. After brief history of the method, its theoretical foundations are considered. Numerous experiments in which exclusive cross sections of e+e- annihilation into hadrons below the center-of-mass energy of 5 GeV have been measured are presented. Some applications of the results obtained to fundamental tests of the Standard Model are listed.Comment: 50 pages, 88 figures, accepted for publication in Rev. Mod. Phy

Electromagnetic form factors in the J/\psi mass region: The case in favor of additional resonances

Using the results of our recent analysis of e^+e^- annihilation, we plot the curves for the diagonal and transition form factors of light hadrons in the time-like region up to the production threshold of an open charm quantum number. The comparison with existing data on the decays of J/\psi into such hadrons shows that some new resonance structures may be present in the mass range between 2 GeVand the J/\psi mass. Searching them may help in a better understanding of the mass spectrum in both the simple and a more sophisticated quark models, and in revealing the details of the three-gluon mechanism of the OZI rule breaking in K\bar K channel.Comment: Formulas are added, typo is corrected, the text is rearranged. Replaced to match the version accepted in Phys Rev

Study of the process e+e-\to \mu+\mu- in the energy region \sqrt{s}=980, 1040 -- 1380 MeV

The cross section of the process e+e-\to\mu+\mu- was measured in the SND experiment at the VEPP-2M e+e- collider in the energy region \sqrt{s}=980, 1040 -- 1380 MeV. The event numbers of the process e+e-\to\mu+\mu- were normalized to the integrated luminosity measured using e+e-\to e+e- and e+e-\to\gamma\gamma processes. The ratio of the measured cross section to the theoretically predicted value is 1.006\pm 0.007 \pm 0.016 and 1.005 \pm 0.007 \pm 0.018 in the first and second case respectively. Using results of the measurements, the electromagnetic running coupling constant \alpha in the energy region \sqrt{s}=1040 -- 1380 MeV was obtained = 134.1\pm 0.5 \pm 1.2 and this is in agreement with theoretical expectation.Comment: 29 pages, 23 figure

Rho primes in analyzing e+e- annihilation, MARK III, LASS and ARGUS data

The results of an analysis are presented of some recent data on the reactions $e^+e^-\to\pi^+\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-$, $e^+e^-\to\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0\pi^0$ with the subtracted $\omega\pi^0$ events, $e^+e^-\to\omega\pi^0$, $e^+e^-\to\eta \pi^+\pi^-$, $e^+e^-\to\pi^+\pi^-$, $K^-p\to\pi^+\pi^-\Lambda$, the decays $J/\psi\to\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0$, $tau^-\to\nu_tau\pi^+\pi^-\pi^-\pi^0$ $tau^-\to\nu_\tau\omega\pi^-$, upon taking into account both the strong energy dependence of the partial widths on energy and the previously neglected mixing of the $\rho$ type resonances. The above effects are shown to exert an essential influence on the specific values of masses and coupling constants of heavy resonances and hence are necessary to be accounted for in establishing their true nature.Comment: 20 pages, ReVTeX, 9 Postscript figures As compared to hep-ph/9607398, new material concerning the analysis of the ARGUS data on the tau decays into four pion hadronic states is adde

Rho-Omega Mixing and the Pion Form Factor in the Time-like Region

We determine the magnitude, phase, and $s$-dependence of $\rho$-$\omega$ ``mixing'' in the pion form factor in the time-like region through fits to e^+e^- \ra \pi^+ \pi^- data. The associated systematic errors in these quantities, arising from the functional form used to fit the $\rho$ resonance, are small. The systematic errors in the $\rho$ mass and width, however, are larger than previously estimated.Comment: 20 pages, REVTeX, epsfig, 2 ps figures, minor change

On Some rare weak decays of vector mesons

Some semileptonic weak decays of vector mesons are considered in the framework of the most popular quark models. The predicted branching ratios are unfortunately too small to make a study of these decays realistic at meson factories under construction.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX. Some typos correcte

Measurement of the Total Cross Section for Hadronic Production by e+e- Annihilation at Energies between 2.6-5 Gev

Using the upgraded Beijing Spectrometer (BESII), we have measured the total cross section for $e^+e^-$ annihilation into hadronic final states at center-of-mass energies of 2.6, 3.2, 3.4, 3.55, 4.6 and 5.0 GeV. Values of $R$, $\sigma(e^+e^-\to {hadrons})/\sigma(e^+e^-\to\mu^+\mu^-)$, are determined.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Study of the process e+e−→π+π−e^+e^- \to \pi^+\pi^- in the energy region 400<\sqrt[]{s}<1000 MeV

The cross section of the process e^+e^-\to \pi^+\pi^- was measured in the SND experiment at the VEPP-2M collider in the energy region 400<\sqrt[]{s}<1000 MeV. This measurement was based on about 12.4 \times 10^6 selected collinear events, which include 7.4\times 10^6 e^+e^-\to e^+e^-, 4.5\times 10^6 e^+e^-\to\pi^+\pi^- and 0.5\times 10^6 e^+e^-\to\mu^+\mu^- selected events. The systematic uncertainty of the cross section determination is 1.3 %. The \rho-meson parameters were determined: m_\rho=774.9\pm 0.4\pm 0.5 MeV, \Gamma_\rho=146.5\pm 0.8\pm 1.5 MeV, \sigma(\rho\to\pi^+\pi^-)=1220\pm 7\pm 16 nb as well as the parameters of the G-parity suppressed decay \omega\to\pi^+\pi^-: \sigma(\omega\to\pi^+\pi^-)=29.9\pm 1.4\pm 1.0 nb and \phi_{\rho\omega} = 113.5\pm 1.3\pm 1.7 degree.Comment: 30 pages REVTEX and 31 figure

Unitarity, Chiral Perturbation Theory, and Meson Form Factors

The inverse-amplitude method is applied to the one-loop chiral expansion of the pion, kaon, and $K_{l3}$ form factors. Since these form factors are determined by the same chiral low-energy constants, it is possible to obtain finite predictions for the inverse-amplitude method. It is shown that this method clearly improves one-loop chiral perturbation theory, and a very good agreement between the inverse-amplitude method and the experimental information is obtained. This suggests that the inverse-amplitude method is a rather systematic way of improving chiral perturbation theory.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figs, uses REVTeX and epsfig.st