Lightest Scalar Resonances and the Dynamics of the \gamma\gamma\to\pi\pi Reactions

Abstract

The high-statistics Belle data on the \gamma\gamma\to\pi^+\pi^- and \gamma\gamma\to\pi^0\pi^0 reactions have been jointly analyzed. The main dynamical mechanisms of these reactions for energies below 1.5 GeV have been revealed. It has been shown that the direct coupling constants of the \sigma(600) and f_0(980) resonances with a \gamma\gamma pair are small and that the \sigma(600)\to\gamma\gamma and f_0(980)\to\gamma\gamma decays are four-quark transitions due primarily to \pi^+\pi^- and K^+K^- loop mechanisms, respectively. The role of the chiral shielding of the \sigma(600) resonance is emphasized. The widths of the f_0(980)\to\gamma\gamma and \sigma(600)\to\gamma\gamma decays averaged over the resonance mass distributions, as well as the width of the f_2(1270)\to\gamma\gamma decay, are estimated as (\Gamma_{f_0\to\gamma\gamma})_{\pi\pi}\approx 0.19 keV, (\Gamma_{\sigma \to\gamma\gamma})_{\pi\pi}\approx 0.45 keV, and \Gamma_{f_2\to\gamma\gamma}(m^2_{f_2})\approx 3.8$ keV.