Testing Chiral Symmetry Breaking at DAPHNE

Abstract

The spontaneous breakdown of the chiral symmetry of the QCD Lagrangian ensures that $ππ$ interactions are weak at low energies. How weak depends on the nature of explicit symmetry breaking. Measurements of $K_{e4}$ decays at DA$Φ$NE will provide a unique insight into this mechanism and test whether the $q{\overline q}$--condensate is large or small.