Invisible Events with Radiative Photons at LEP

A study of the radiative neutrino counting reaction $e^+ e^- \to \nu {\bar \nu} \gamma$ at LEP1 and LEP2 energies is presented. An approximate expression for the spectrum of the observed photon is derived within the framework of the $p_t$-dependent structure function approach. This is compared with an exact expression and found in agreement within the foreseen experimental accuracy. This model describing single-photon radiation can be applied to the more general case of initial-state single-photon emission accompanying invisible final-state events. Higher-order QED corrections due to undetected initial-state radiation are also included. The implementation in a Monte Carlo event generator is briefly described.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 7 figures available via anonymous ftp at: ftp://cobra1.pv.infn.it/pub/phot/, files fig#n.ps with #=1,...,

O(α2){\cal O} (\alpha^2) Next-to-Leading Photonic Corrections to Small-Angle Bhabha Scattering in the Structure Function Formalism

A general method for computing ${\cal O} (\alpha^2)$ and higher-order next-to-leading photonic corrections is presented and applied to the precision calculation of the small-angle Bhabha scattering cross section in the phase-space region of interest for the luminosity measurement at LEP. The formulation is based on a proper matching of exact $\cal O (\alpha)$ results with higher-order corrections in the Structure Function formalism. The results of the approach are analytically compared with theoretical calculations, both for $s$- and $t$-channel processes, available for simple Event Selections. Numerical predictions for realistic Event Selections are also provided and critically compared with the ones existing in the literature.Comment: 16 pages, gzip'ed uuencoded tar fil

Six-Fermion Calculation of Intermediate-mass Higgs Boson Production at Future e+e−e^+ e^- Colliders

The production of an intermediate-mass Higgs boson in processes of the kind $e^+ e^- \to 6$ fermions at the energies of future linear colliders is studied. The recently developed and fully automatic algorithm/code ALPHA is used to compute the tree-level scattering amplitudes for the reactions $e^+ e^- \to \mu^+ \mu^- \tau^- \bar\nu_{\tau} u \bar d, \mu^+ \mu^- e^- \bar\nu_{e} u \bar d$. The code has been interfaced with the Monte Carlo program HIGGSPV/WWGENPV, properly adapted to 6-fermion production, in order to provide realistic results, both in the form of cross sections and event samples at the partonic level. Phenomenological results, that incorporate the effects of initial-state radiation and beamstrahlung, are shown and commented, emphasizing the potentials of full six-fermion calculations for precise background evaluation as well as for detailed studies of the fundamental properties of the Higgs particle.Comment: 31 pages, LaTeX, 15 eps low-resolution figures include

Six-fermion production and Higgs boson physics at future e+e−e^+ e^- colliders

The six-fermion production processes $e^+e^-\to q\bar q l^+ l^-\nu\bar\nu$, with all the lepton flavours and $q=u,d,c,s$, relevant to the study of the intermediate-mass Higgs boson at future $e^+e^-$ linear colliders, are analysed. A Monte Carlo program, taking into account the whole set of tree-level scattering amplitudes and the relevant radiative effects, is developed to provide integrated cross sections and generation of unweighted events. The complete calculation is compared with the available results of real Higgs production, and the opportunities of precision studies with event generation are discussed, demonstrating the relevance of a full six-fermion calculation. Numerical results for integrated cross sections with various kinematical cuts and including radiative effects are given and commented. In the analysis of event samples, several distributions are studied and found to be sensitive to the presence and to the properties of the Higgs boson.Comment: LaTeX, 27 pages, 13 figures included. Minor changes, final version to appear in Eur. Phys. J.

Radiative four-fermion processes at LEP2

The production of four fermions plus a visible photon in electron-positron collisions is analyzed, with particular emphasis on the LEP2 energy range. The study is based on the calculation of exact matrix elements, including the effect of fermion masses. In the light of the present measurements performed at LEP, triple and quartic anomalous gauge couplings are taken into account. Due to the presence of a visible photon in the final state, particular attention is paid to the treatment of higher-order QED corrections. Explicit results for integrated cross sections and differential distributions are shown and commented. The features of the Monte Carlo program WRAP, used to perform the calculation and available for experimental analysis, are described.Comment: LaTeX, 14 pages, 6 tables, 13 figures. Numerical results added, version to appear in Eur. Phys. J.

Light Pair Correction to Bhabha Scattering at Small Angle

This work deals with the computation of electron pair correction to small angle Bhabha scattering, in order to contribute to the improvement of luminometry precision at LEP/SLC below 0.1% theoretical accuracy. The exact QED four-fermion matrix element for $e^+e^-\to e^+e^-e^+e^-$, including all diagrams and mass terms, is computed and different Feynman graph topologies are studied to quantify the error of approximate calculations present in the literature. Several numerical results, obtained by a Monte Carlo program with full matrix element, initial-state radiation via collinear structure functions, and realistic event selections, are shown and critically compared with the existing ones. The present calculation, together with recent progress in the sector of $O(\alpha^2)$ purely photonic corrections, contributes to achieve a total theoretical error in luminometry at the 0.05% level, close to the current experimental precision and important in view of the final analysis of the electroweak precision data.Comment: LaTeX2e, 28 pages, 8 figures include

Higher-order QED corrections to single-W production in electron-positron collisions

Four-fermion processes with a particle lost in the beam pipe are studied at LEP to perform precision tests of the electroweak theory. Leading higher-order QED corrections to such processes are analyzed within the framework of the Structure Functions (SF) approach. The energy scale entering the QED SF is determined by inspection of the soft and collinear limit of the O(alpha) radiative corrections to the four-fermion final states, paying particular attention to the process of single-W production. Numerical predictions are shown in realistic situations for LEP experiments and compared with existing results. A Monte Carlo event generator, including exact tree-level matrix elements, vacuum polarization, higher-order leading QED corrections and anomalous trilinear gauge couplings, is presented.Comment: LaTeX (using elsart), 21 pages, 8 .ps figure

Light-Pair Corrections to Small-Angle Bhabha Scattering in a Realistic Set-up at LEP

Light-pair corrections to small-angle Bhabha scattering have been computed in a realistic set-up for luminosity measurements at LEP. The effect of acollinearity and acoplanarity rejection criteria has been carefully analysed for typical calorimetric event selections. The magnitude of the correction, depending on the details of the considered set-up, is comparable with the present experimental error.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX (elsart.sty), 4 tables, 1 figur