Chiral Perturbation Theory for Vector Mesons

Abstract

We derive a heavy vector-meson chiral Lagrangian in which the vector mesons are treated as heavy static matter fields. The unknown couplings of the chiral Lagrangian are further related using the 1/N_c expansion. Chiral perturbation theory is applied to the vector-meson mass matrix. At one loop there are large corrections to the individual vector-meson masses, but the singlet-octet mixing angle remains almost unchanged. The parity-violating s-wave φ→ρπ weak decay amplitude is derived in the combined chiral and large N_c limits. Rare φ decays provide a sensitive test of nonleptonic neutral current structure.