RacoonWW: radiative corrections on e<SUP>+</SUP>e<SUP>-</SUP> -> WW -> 4F

by Stefan DITTMAIER (University of Bielefeld)

Friday 9 Jun 2000, 14:00 → 14:15 Europe/Zurich

TH Auditorium (CERN)

In recent years the increasing experimental precision of the W-pair production cross section at LEP2 required more and more precise predictions. For instance, the total WW cross section has reached per-cent precision and has thus become sensitive to non-universal electroweak radiative corrections. Since the calculation of such corrections and their inclusion into predictions are highly non-trivial, only leading universal corrections have been included in event generators in the past. RACOONWW is the first Monte Carlo generator for e⁺e^- -> WW -> 4f that includes the electroweak O(a) corrections in the so-called double-pole approximation completely. The concept of the underlying calculation is explained, and a survey of phenomenological results is presented. Particular attention is paid to the photon-radiation processes e⁺e^- -> 4f + g, which are an important ingredient in the corrections, but also represent an interesting class of processes in their own right.