Applications of baryon chiral perturbation theory. A topical example: The nucleon sigma terms

Abstract

We present an overview of modern approaches to low-energy baryon structure based on baryon chiral perturbation theory. These are driven by the emergence of Lorentz covariant schemes and the systematic consideration of the effects of the lowest-lying decuplet resonances. In order to illustrate the progress recently achieved in this field, we present the last developments on our understanding of the nucleon sigma terms along these lines. In particular, we will show how these methods, in SU(2) or SU(3) settings, are reliable tools to process and maximize the information on the physical structure of the nucleon one can obtain from either experimental data or lattice QCD results.