The Potential of a New Linear Collider for the Measurement of the Trilinear Couplings among the Electroweak Vector Bosons

Abstract

We study the accuracy to be obtained in measuring trilinear $Z^0W^+W^-$ and $γW^+W^-$ couplings in the reaction $e^+e^- \to W^+W^-$ at "New Linear Collider" energies of $500GeV$ to $1000GeV$. We derive simple scaling laws for the sensitivity in the measurement of these couplings. For most couplings the sensitivity increases as $\sqrt{L\cdot s}$, where $L$ denotes the integrated luminosity and $\sqrt s$ denotes the $e^+e^-$ center-of-mass energy. Detailed investigations based on various fits confirm these scaling laws and show that an accuracy of the order of the standard radiative corrections can be reached at the NLC for the design values of the luminosity.