A previous formal derivation of the effective chiral Lagrangian for low-lying pseudoscalar mesons from first-principles QCD without approximations [Q. Wang, Y.-P. Kuang, X.-L. Wang, and M. Xiao, Phys. Rev. D 61, 054011 (2000)] is generalized to further include scalar, vector, and axial-vector mesons. In the large $N_c$ limit and with an Abelian approximation, we show that the properties of the newly added mesons in our formalism are determined by the corresponding underlying fundamental homogeneous Bethe-Salpeter equation in the ladder approximation, which yields the equations of motion for the scalar, vector, and axial-vector meson fields at the level of an effective chiral Lagrangian. The masses appearing in the equations of motion of the meson fields are those determined by the corresponding Bethe-Salpeter equation.

• Received 30 January 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.95.074012