High-energy $\pi\pi$ scattering without and with photon radiation

TL;DR

This paper analyzes high-energy pion scattering and associated soft photon radiation using quantum field theory, comparing approximations to full models and exploring the origins of anomalous soft photons.

Contribution

It introduces three soft-photon approximations and compares them with the tensor-pomeron model at high energies, identifying where approximations are valid and exploring sources of anomalous soft photons.

Findings

Soft-photon theorems are confirmed in the low-energy limit.

SPAs are accurate in specific kinematic regions at high energies.

Insights into the origin of anomalous soft photons are discussed.

Abstract

We discuss the processes $\pi \pi \to \pi \pi$ and $\pi \pi \to \pi \pi \gamma$ from a general quantum field theory (QFT) point of view. We study the soft-photon limit where the photon energy $\omega \to 0$ and where we have the theorems due to F.E. Low and S. Weinberg. We consider for the radiative amplitude the Laurent expansion in $\omega$ and calculate the terms of order $\omega^{-1}$ and $\omega^{0}$. The pole term $\propto \omega^{-1}$ is given by Weinberg's soft-photon theorem. Then we calculate the amplitudes for the above reactions for high center-of-mass energies and small momentum transfers, that is, in the soft-diffraction regime using the tensor-pomeron model. We identify places where "anomalous" soft photons could come from. Three soft-photon approximations (SPAs) are introduced. The corresponding SPA results are compared to those obtained from the full tensor-pomeron model for center-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s} = 10$ GeV and 100 GeV. The kinematic regions where the SPAs are a good representation of the full amplitude are determined. Finally we make some remarks on the type of fundamental information one could obtain from high-energy exclusive hadronic reactions without and with soft photon radiation.