Anomalous Couplings in e^+ e^- --> W^+ W^- gamma at LEP2 and NLC

Abstract

We present sensitivity limits on the coefficients of a dimension-6 effective Lagrangian that parametrizes the possible effects of new physics beyond the Standard Model. Our results are based on the study of the process $e^+ e^- \to W^+ W^- γ$ at LEP2 and NLC energies. In our calculations, we include all the new anomalous interactions, involving vector and Higgs bosons, and take into account the Standard Model irreducible background. We analyse the impact of these new interactions on the total cross section, including the effects of the initial electron and final W polarizations. We then focus on the operators that will not be constrained by the $e^+ e^- \to W^+ W^-$ process, obtaining limits based on the photon energy distribution.