The radiative return method - a short theory review

Abstract

A short review of the status of the theoretical developments concerning the radiative return method is presented. The emphasis is on the construction of the PHOKHARA Monte Carlo event generator and its tests. It is advocated that the radiative return method provides not only with the hadronic cross section extraction competitive with and complementary to the scan method, but also that it is a powerful tool in detailed studies of the hadron interactions.