Theory of the low-energy pion--nucleon interaction

A once-subtracted form of the Low equation for the pion-nucleon scattering amplitude is derived, with PCAC used to define the amplitude when one pion is off the mass shell. The static approximation is not made and both the seagull terms and the antinucleon contribution (z-graphs) are retained. The theory is applied to calculate the S-wave amplitudes in the elastic scattering region. Good agreement is found with the phase shift fits to the data when we use mod(g/sub π/(4M2)) = 11.69 and 25.5 MeV for the πN sigma-commutator. The implications of this work for the analysis of low-energy elastic scattering of pions from nuclei are discussed. In particular, it is pointed out how this work establishes the presence of a Laplacian term in the pion-nucleus optical potential with a magnitude that is fixed from the value of the sigma-commutator