Radiative corrections to W+W− → W+W− in the electroweak standard model Original Research Article

The cross-section for W+W− → W+W− with arbitrarily polarized W bosons is calculated within the Electroweak Standard Model including the complete virtual and soft-photonic O(α) corrections. We show the numerical importance of the radiative corrections for the dominating polarized cross-sections and for the unpolarized cross-section. The numerical accuracy of the equivalence theorem is investigated in O(α) by comparing the cross-section for purely longitudinal W bosons obtained from the equivalence theorem and from the direct calculation. We point out that the instability of the W boson, which is inherent in the one-loop corrections, prevents a consistent calculation of radiative corrections to the scattering of on-real-mass-shell longitudinal W bosons beyond O(α).