Application of the Pinch Technique to Neutral Current Amplitudes and the Concept of the Z Mass

The pinch technique (PT) is applied to neutral current amplitudes, focusing on the mixing problem. Extending recent arguments due to Papavassiliou and Pilaftsis, it is shown that the use of the PT self-energies does not shift the complex-valued position of the pole through order {\cal O}($g^4$). This leads (to the same accuracy) to a simple interpretation of $M_Z$, the mass measured at LEP, in terms of the PT self-energies. It is pointed out that the PT approach provides a convenient and rather elegant formalism to discuss important neutral current amplitudes, such as those relevant to four-fermion processes and LEP2.