Pion-nucleon sigma-term and the strange quark content of the proton

Exploiting unitarity and analyticity, a set of integral equations which determine the behavior of the S and P wave phase shifts near threshold in terms of two subtraction constants is derived. These constants also fix the value of the Sigma term when information on pion scattering is used in addition to fix the curvature of the D+ amplitude as well as the t-dependence of the scalar form factor sigma(t). The result of the analysis including the low energy pion-nucleon data is sigma approx. = 60 MeV and sigma = sigma(0) approx. = 45 MeV. The corresponding value for the strange quark constant of the proton is given.