The Adler-Weisberger sum rule

Starting from a weak form of the axial current algebra and usingFubini's covariant dispersion method we give a fairly rigorous derivation of the Adler-Weisberger sum rule. Special attention is given to the necessary continuation in the “pion mass”. Combining the sum rule with the forwardπ ^± p dispersion relation we obtain a sum rule containing essentially low energy data. A numerical evaluation is given for two sets of existing s-waveπN scattering lengths. The one reproducesAdler's andWeisberger's results, the other improves the agreement with experiment giving r_A=1.20.