Generalized polarizabilities of the nucleon in chiral effective theories -art. no. 014013

Using the techniques of chiral effective field theories we evaluate the so called "generalized polarizabilities,'' which characterize the structure de pendent components in virtual Compton scattering off the nucleon as probed in the electron scattering reaction eN-->e'N gamma. Results are given for b oth spin-dependent and spin-independent structure effects to O(p(3)) in SU( 2) heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory and to O(epsilon(3)) in the SU(2 ) "small scale expansion.".