ONE-LOOP DIVERGENCES IN CHIRAL PERTURBATION-THEORY AND RIGHT-INVARIANT METRICS ON SU(3)

In the framework of chiral perturbation theory, we compute the one-loop divergences of the effective Lagrangian describing strong and non-leptonic weak interactions of pseudoscalar mesons. We use the background field method and the heat-kernel expansion, and underline the geometrical meaning of the different terms, showing how the right-invariance of the metrics on SU(3) allows to clarify and simplify the calculations. Our results are given in terms of a minimal set of independent counterterms, and shorten previous ones of the literature, in the particular case where the electromagnetic field is the only external source which is considered. We also show that a geometrical construction of the effective Lagrangian at order O(p4) allows to derive some relations between the finite parts of the coupling constants. These relations do not depend on the scale mu used to renormalize.