Discovering Non-Abelian Weak Couplings and an Anomalous Magnetic Dipole Moment of the W

In view of the forthcoming results on W± pair production at LEP 2, we emphasize that direct empirical evidence on non-trivial properties of the weak vector bosons can be obtained with relatively limited integrated luminosity. An integrated luminosity of 10 pb at √ s = 175 GeV will be sufficient to provide direct experimental evidence for non-vanishing self-couplings of nonAbelian type among the weak vector bosons. An integrated luminosity of 100 pb at √ s = 175 GeV will provide direct evidence for the existence of an anomalous magnetic dipole moment of the charged vector bosons W±. With respect to properties of the electroweak vector bosons, there are two salient predictions of the standard electroweak theory [1] which lack direct experimental confirmation so far: the non-Abelian coupling between the members of the SU(2) triplet of vector bosons, and, closely connected to it, the anomalous magnetic dipole moment coupling of the charged vector bosons, W. From the detailed analysis of the LEP 1 precision data there is strong indirect evidence [2] that indeed the standard couplings are realized in nature. The production of WW at LEP 2 will nevertheless open up a new domain of investigations by providing direct tests of the non-Abelian structure and the anomalous magnetic dipole moment prediction. e-mail: [email protected]