On the High-energy Behavior of Weakly Coupled Gauge Theories

Jan, 1990
8 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Lett.B 243 (1990) 271-278
  • Published: 1990
Report number:
  • UCLA-90-TEP-2

Citations per year

1990199820062014202205101520
Abstract: (Elsevier)
Motivated by recent investigations in sphaleron physics, we discuss several ways in which even weakly-coupled gauge theories, like the standard model, show non-perturbative features at energies E > M w / α w and multiplicity N ∼ α w −1 . For B + L-violating processes we show how to modify the canonical dilute instanton gas approximation (DIGA) so that it gives sensible answers at high energy in Minkowski space; in the fixed-angle regime, cross sections decrease like E −2 and show a Poisson distribution in N , peaked at N ≌2π/α w ; this is essentially the limiting multiplicity. The total cross section is many orders of magnitude larger than would be expected from the DIGA at small N , but exactly how many orders of magnitude larger is extremely difficult to calculate. We show that perturbation theory breaks down at similar energies and multiplicities for B + L-conserving processes, and give a simple model of a cure through unitarization. Finally, we speculate on such issues as large-multiplicity diffractive events and sphaleron processes.
  • gauge field theory: high energy behavior
  • gauge field theory: weak coupling
  • weak coupling: gauge field theory
  • gauge field theory: strong coupling
  • strong coupling: gauge field theory
  • field equations: sphaleron
  • field equations: instanton
  • tunneling
  • baryon number: violation
  • neutrino electron: diffraction