The strangeness content of the nucleon from effective field theory and phenomenology

Abstract

We revisit the classical relation between the strangeness content of the nucleon, the pion–nucleon sigma term and the SU(3)F breaking of the baryon masses in the context of Lorentz covariant chiral perturbation theory with explicit decuplet-baryon resonance fields. We find that a value of the pion–nucleon sigma term of ∼60 MeV is not necessarily at odds with a small strangeness content of the nucleon, in line with the fulfillment of the OZI rule. Moreover, this value is indeed favored by our next-to-leading order calculation. We compare our results with earlier ones and discuss the convergence of the chiral series as well as the uncertainties of chiral approaches to the determination of the sigma terms.