Meson-baryon-baryon vertex function and the Ward-Takahashi identity.

Ohta proposed a solution for the well-known difficulty of satisfying the WardTakahashi identity for a photo-meson-baryon-baryon amplitude (γMBB) when a dressed meson-baryon-baryon (MBB) vertex function is present. He obtained a form for the γMBB amplitude which contained, in addition to the usual pole terms, longitudinal seagull terms which were determined entirely by the MBB vertex function. He arrived at his result by using a Lagrangian which yields the MBB vertex function at tree level. We show that such a Lagrangian can be neither hermitian nor charge conjugation invariant. We have been able to reproduce Ohta’s result for the γMBB amplitude using the Ward-Takahashi identity and no other assumption, dynamical or otherwise, and the most general form for the MBB and γMBB vertices. However, contrary to Ohta’s finding, we find that the seagull terms are not robust. The seagull terms extracted from the γMBB vertex occur unchanged in tree graphs, such as in an exchange current amplitude. But the seagull terms which appear in a loop graph, as in the calculation of an electromagnetic form factor, are, in general, different. The whole procedure says nothing about the transverse part of the (γMBB) vertex and its contributions to the amplitudes in question. PACS numbers: 11.30.-j, 13.40.G, 13.60.-r