Chiral Symmetry Approach to the $f_0$ (980) and $a_0$ (980) Resonances

We have studied the decay widths $\Gamma_{\pi \pi}, \Gamma_{K \bar{K}}, \Gamma_{\pi \eta}, \Gamma_{\gamma \gamma},$ of the $f_0 (980)$ and $a_0 (980)$ mesons by assuming that they are largely dominated by $K\bar{K}$ components. By using threshold $K \bar{K}$ kinematics and lowest order of chiral perturbation theory we are able to write these widths in terms of only one unknown magnitude for each meson. The results obtained by using the experimental values of the masses are in qualitative agreement with the experimental data exception made of $\Gamma_{K \bar{K}}$ for the $a_0$, where there is also disagreement between present data.