Effective Lagrangian Approach to pion photoproduction from the nucleon

We present a pion photoproduction model on the free nucleon based on an Effective Lagrangian Approach (ELA) which includes the nucleon resonances (Delta(1232), N(1440), N(1520), N(1535), Delta(1620), N(1650), and Delta(1700)), in addition to Born and vector meson exchange terms. The model incorporates a new theoretical treatment of spin-3/2 resonances, first introduced by Pascalutsa, avoiding pathologies present in previous models. Other main features of the model are chiral symmetry, gauge invariance, and crossing symmetry. We use the model combined with modern optimization techniques to assess the parameters of the nucleon resonances on the basis of world data on electromagnetic multipoles. We present results for electromagnetic multipoles, differential cross-sections, asymmetries, and total cross-sections for all one pion photoproduction processes on free nucleons. We find overall agreement with data from threshold up to 1 GeV in laboratory frame. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.