Low energy analysis of pi N --> pi N

We derive a representation for the pion nucleon scattering amplitude that is valid to the fourth order of the chiral expansion. To obtain the correct analytic structure of the singularities in the low energy region, we have performed the calculation in a relativistic framework (infrared regularization). The result can be written in terms of functions of a single variable. We study the corresponding dispersion relations and discuss the problems encountered in the straightforward nonrelativistic expansion of the infrared singularities. As an application, we evaluate the corrections to the Goldberger-Treiman relation and to the low energy theorem that relates the value of the amplitude at the Cheng-Dashen point to the \sigma-term. While chiral symmetry does govern the behaviour of the amplitude in the vicinity of this point, the representation for the scattering amplitude is not accurate enough to use it for an extrapolation of the experimental data to the subthreshold region. We propose to perform this extrapolation on the basis of a set of integral equations that interrelate the lowest partial waves and are analogous to the Roy equations for \pi\pi scattering.