Heavy Fermion Production and the Symmetry Breaking Sector of the Electroweak Interactions

Abstract

We point out that heavy fermion production through the fusion of the longitudinal gauge bosons might be relevant in probing the strongly interacting symmetry breaking sector of the electroweak interactions, by showing the dependence of the one loop amplititude for ($ w^{+} w^{-} \rightarrow \overline{t} t $) on the symmetry breaking mechanism. The one loop amplitude for ($ w^{+} w^{-} \rightarrow \overline{t} t $) is calculated for the standard model and extended technicolour theory. Techni-rho meson exchange is also briefly discussed. We find at $m_{t} = 150 ~GeV$ the cross section of top pair production in $ e^{+} e^{-}$ collisions is comparable in order of magnitude to that of the longitudinal gauge boson scattering.