Vacuum pseudoscalar susceptibility

We derive a novel model-independent result for the pion susceptibility in QCD via the isovector-pseudoscalar vacuum polarization. In the neighbourhood of the chiral limit, the pion susceptibility can be expressed as a sum of two independent terms. The first expresses the pion-pole contribution. The second is identical to the vacuum chiral susceptibility, which describes the response of QCD's ground state to a fluctuation in the current-quark mass. In this result one finds a straightforward explanation of a mismatch between extant estimates of the pion susceptibility.