Correlated low-energy constants in large-$N_c$ chiral perturbation theory

Abstract

The combined chiral and large-$N_c$ expansion is increasingly employed in precision studies involving the $η$ and $η'$ mesons, including recent applications to low-energy axion phenomenology within U(3) chiral perturbation theory. We point out that the operator structure of the large-$N_c$ chiral Lagrangian naturally induces correlated directions among the low-energy constants $(F_0,L_4,C_{16})$ and $(F_0,L_6,C_{20})$, implying that phenomenological analyses determine correlated combinations of couplings rather than independent low-energy constants. Using the determination of the pion decay constant as an illustrative example, we reinterpret existing phenomenological and lattice determinations in terms of these correlated directions, showing that the well-known anticorrelation between $F_0$ and $L_4$ extends naturally to NNLO through $C_{16}$. These correlated directions lead to a practical prescription for interpreting and propagating phenomenological determinations of the low-energy constants consistently within the combined chiral and large-$N_c$ framework.