Thirring's low-energy theorem and its generalizations in the electroweak Standard Model

Abstract

The radiative corrections to Compton scattering vanish in the low-energy limit in all orders of perturbation theory. This theorem, which is well-known for Abelian gauge theories, is proved in the electroweak Standard Model. Moreover, analogous theorems are derived for photon scattering off other charged particles, in particular W bosons. Since the theorems follow from gauge invariance and on-shell renormalization, their derivation is most conveniently performed in the framework of the background-field method.