Eur. Phys. J. A (2004) 21: 11-28
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2003-10178-y

On kaonic hydrogen. Quantum field theoretic and relativistic covariant approach

¹ Atominstitut der Österreichischen Universitäten, Arbeitsbereich Kernphysik und Nukleare Astrophysik, Technische Universität Wien, Wiedner Hauptstr. 8-10, A-1040, Wien, Austria
² Institut für Mittelenergiephysik, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Boltzmanngasse 3, A-1090, Wien, Austria

^* e-mail: ivanov@kph.tuwien.ac.at

Abstract

We study kaonic hydrogen, the bound K ^- p state A _{K p} . Within a quantum field theoretic and relativistic covariant approach we derive the energy level displacement of the ground state of kaonic hydrogen in terms of the amplitude of K ^- p scattering for arbitrary relative momenta. The amplitude of low-energy K ^- p scattering near threshold is defined by the contributions of three resonances , and and a smooth elastic background. The amplitudes of inelastic channels of low-energy K ^- p scattering fit experimental data on the near-threshold behaviour of the cross-sections and the experimental data by the DEAR Collaboration. We use the soft-pion technique (leading order in Chiral Perturbation Theory) for the calculation of the partial width of the radiative decay of pionic hydrogen and the Panofsky ratio. The theoretical prediction for the Panofsky ratio agrees well with experimental data. We apply the soft-kaon technique (leading order in Chiral Perturbation Theory) to the calculation of the partial widths of radiative decays of kaonic hydrogen and . We show that the contribution of these decays to the width of the energy level of the ground state of kaonic hydrogen is less than 1.