CHIRAL EXPANSION OF THE NUCLEONS ELECTROMAGNETIC POLARIZABILITIES

We evaluate the electric and magnetic polarizabilities of the proton and neutron in chiral perturbation theory to one-loop order. We present a detailed discussion of the polarizabilities in the chiral limit. Our calculation explains the experimentally observed patterns concerning the relative magnitudes of the electric and magnetic polarizabilities of the proton and the neutron. We also point out the need for a higher-loop calculation to include important resonance exchanges.