Electroweak Reactions in the Non-Perturbative Regime of QCD

Abstract

In the first part of these lectures, I consider chiral perturbation theory in the presence of matter fields. It allows to systematically work out the consequences of the broken chiral symmetry of QCD. As examples, threshold pion photo- and electroproduction and (spin-flip) nucleon Compton scattering are considered. The second part deals with the quark structure of the nucleon at low energies. The various electromagnetic and weak form factors are discussed. It is shown how parity-violating electron and (anti)neutrino scattering off nucleons and nuclei can be used as a tool to pin down strange matrix elements of the proton. The calculation of QED, QCD and heavy quark corrections to these processes is also touched upon. (Lectures given at the XXXII. Internationale Universit{\"a}tswochen f{\"u}r Kern- und Teilchenphysik, Schladming, Austria, February 24- March 5, 1993).