Vector meson dominance and the ρ meson

We discuss the properties of vector mesons, in particular the ρ 0 , in the context of the Hidden Local Symmetry (HLS) model. This provides a unified framework to study several aspects of the low energy QCD sector. Firstly, we show that in the HLS model the physical photon is massless, without requiring off field diagonalization. We then demonstrate the equivalence of HLS and the two existing representations of vector meson dominance, VMD1 and VMD2, at both tree level and one loop order. Finally the S matrix pole position is shown to provide a convenient, model independent means of specifying the ρ mass and width, in contrast to the real axis prescription currently used.