Compton Scattering by a Pion and off--Shell Effects

We consider Compton scattering by a pion in the framework of chiral perturbation theory. We investigate off--shell effects in the s-- and u--channel pole diagrams. For that purpose we perform a field transformation which, in comparison with the standard Gasser and Leutwyler Lagrangian, generates additional terms at order $p^4$ proportional to the lowest--order equation of motion. As a result of the equivalence theorem the two Lagrangians predict the same Compton scattering S--matrix even though they generate different off--shell form factors. We conclude that off--shell effects are not only model--dependent but also representation--dependent.