Based on an effective field theory of hadrons in which quantum chromodynamics is assumed to provide the necessary bare cutoff functions, a gauge-invariant theory of pion photoproduction with fully dressed nucleons is developed. The formalism provides consistent dynamical descriptions of $\pi N\to \pi N$ scattering and $\gamma N\to \pi N$ production mechanisms in terms of nonlinear integral equations for fully dressed hadrons. Defining electromagnetic currents via the gauging of hadronic $n$-point Green's functions, dynamically detailed currents for dressed nucleons are introduced. The dressed hadron currents and the pion photoproduction current are explicitly shown to satisfy gauge invariance in a self-consistent manner. Approximations are discussed that make the nonlinear formalism manageable in practice and yet preserve gauge invariance. This is achieved by recasting the gauge conditions for all contributing interaction currents as continuity equations with “surface” terms for the individual particle legs coming into or going out of the hadronic interaction region. General procedures are given that approximate any type of (global) interaction current in a gauge-invariance-preserving manner as a sum of single-particle “surface” currents. It is argued that these prescriptions carry over to other reactions, irrespective of the number or type of contributing hadrons or hadronic systems.

• Received 22 April 1997

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.56.2041