GAMMA-GAMMA-]PI(0)PI(0) CONTRIBUTION TO THE PROCESS E(-)-]E(+)E(-)PI(0)PI(0)()E()

We consider the O(p(4)) predictions of chiral perturbation theory (chi PT) in the process gamma gamma-->pi(0) pi(0), together with the study of the existing experimental measurements and the planned new ones. A t the Frascati phi factory DA phi NE the rate of the events e(+)e(-)-- >e(+)e(-)pi(0) pi(0) is large enough to allow for a measurement of the cross section with a good statistical sensitivity. However, a quantit ative analysis of the commonly used approximation of considering only real photons for the detection of the gamma gamma-->pi(0) pi(0) signal is still lacking. This motivates us to compute the cross section in c hi PT for the production of pi(0) pairs due to off-shell photons. A me asurement of the azimuthal correlations would test the higher order ch i PT corrections independently from the measurement of the cross secti on. We approximate these corrections by including the contribution of the low-lying vector resonances in the scattering amplitude.