Master formulae approach to photon fusion reactions

Abstract We analyze the γγ → ππ , KK , ηη, πη reactions through S = 2 GeV , using the master formula approach to QCD with three flavors. In this approach, the constraints of broken chiral symmetry, unitarity and crossing symmetry are manifest in all channels. The pertinent vacuum correlators are analyzed at tree level using straightforward resonance saturation methods. A one-loop chiral power counting analysis at threshold is also carried out and compared to standard chiral perturbation theory. Our results are in overall agreement with the existing data in all channels. We predict the strange meson polarizabilities and a very small cross section for γγ → ηη .