# Measuring WWZ and WW𝛾 coupling constants with Z⁰-pole data

## 1 Introduction

One of the most prominent goals of the LEP 2 program performed at the Large Electron Positron Collider (LEP) is the precise measurement of the couplings between the neutral electroweak bosons $`\mathrm{Z}^0`$, $`\gamma `$ and the charged boson $`\mathrm{W}^\pm `$ . Analogous measurements were performed at the TEVATRON measuring mainly the coupling between the photon and the $`\mathrm{W}^\pm `$. These two measurements were the first ones which were able to prove the non-Abelian character of the electroweak part of the Standard model . Even more precise determinations will be possible at future hadron or electron-positron-collider.

However, before the LEP 2 program with centre-of-mass energies above the W-pair production threshold of about 161 GeV, LEP was running at energies around the $`\mathrm{Z}^0`$-pole at 91 GeV allowing to perform very precise measurements of fermion pair production properties. The experiments at LEP-1 and also at SLAC measure radiative corrections to the $`\mathrm{Z}^0`$ff vertex. These radiative corrections involve contributions with WWV (V=$`\mathrm{Z}^0`$, $`\gamma `$) vertices as shown in figure 1 a) and b) and WWV-independent contributions (figure 1 c,d). Therefore precise measurements of fermion-pair production allow the determination of the WWV coupling constants. This was noted already in the beginning of the LEP era .

The phenomenological effective Lagrangian of the WWZ and WW$`\gamma `$ vertices, respecting only Lorentz-invariance, contains 14 triple gauge coupling constants (TGCs) as free parameters. All of these can be accommodated in the Standard Model requesting SU(2)$`\times `$U(1) gauge invariance, if one considers higher dimensional SU(2)$`\times `$U(1) gauge invariant operators. The neglect of higher dimensional operators leads automatically to relations between TGCs. The model which is discussed in the following neglects operators having a higher dimension than six. Loop corrections in this model lead to a logarithmic divergence of low energy observables . However it was shown that three dimension-six operators, that induce non-standard TGCs do not have this property. Assuming the existence of a light Higgs boson, created by the Higgs-doublet field $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$, one can apply a linear realization of the SU(2)$`\times `$U(1) symmetry. Then one obtains in addition to the SM Lagrangian the following three terms  :

$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ $`=ıg^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa _\gamma \mathrm{cos}^2\theta _W\mathrm{\Delta }g_Z^1}{m_W^2}}(D_\mu \mathrm{\Phi })^{}B^{\mu \nu }(D_\nu \mathrm{\Phi })+ıg{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _W\mathrm{\Delta }g_Z^1}{m_W^2}}(D_\mu \mathrm{\Phi })^{}\stackrel{}{\tau }\stackrel{}{\widehat{W}}^{\mu \nu }(D_\nu \mathrm{\Phi })`$   
$`+ıg{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda _\gamma }{6m_W^2}}\stackrel{}{\widehat{W}}B_\nu ^\mu (\stackrel{}{\widehat{W}}B_\rho ^\nu \times \stackrel{}{\widehat{W}}B_\mu ^\rho ).`$ (1)   
In this model the TGC-relations are :

$`\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa _\gamma `$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _W}{\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W}}(\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa _Z\mathrm{\Delta }g_Z^1),`$ (2)   
$`\lambda _\gamma `$ $`=\lambda _Z.`$ (3)   
The remaining nine coupling constants are zero. The SM predicts that all 14 parameters are zero. The TGCs $`\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa _V`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }g_V^1`$ parametrise the difference of $`g_V^1`$ and $`\kappa _V`$ to its SM expectation of unity :

$`\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa _V=\kappa _V1`$ (4)   
$`\mathrm{\Delta }g_V^1=g_V^11`$ (5)   
In almost all models the electromagnetic gauge invariance is taken for granted, such that $`\mathrm{\Delta }g_\gamma ^1`$, the divergence of the W-charge from the unit charge, is always zero. The parameter $`\lambda _\gamma `$ is also set to zero in our analysis, since we are not aware of any computation of the dependence of $`ϵ_1`$, $`ϵ_2`$ and $`ϵ_3`$ on $`\lambda _\gamma `$.

## 2 Analysis and Results

The preliminary measurements of electroweak parameters performed at LEP 1, SLAC and TEVATRON are listed in table 1. The SM predictions agree well with these measurements . The analysis of this data set proceeds via two steps. In the first step, the $`ϵ`$ parameters $`ϵ_1`$, $`ϵ_2`$, $`ϵ_3`$ and $`ϵ_b`$ :

$`ϵ_1`$ $`=\mathrm{\Delta }\rho `$ (6)   
$`ϵ_2`$ $`=\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _W^0\mathrm{\Delta }\rho +{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W^0\mathrm{\Delta }r_W}{\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _W^0\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W^0}}2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W^0\mathrm{\Delta }k^{}`$ (7)   
$`ϵ_3`$ $`=\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _W^0\mathrm{\Delta }\rho +(\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _W^0\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W^0)\mathrm{\Delta }k^{}`$ (8)   
$`ϵ_b`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{g_A^b}{g_A^l}}1\text{and}ϵ_b={\displaystyle \frac{g_V^b}{g_A^l}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{4}{3}}(1+\mathrm{\Delta }k^{})\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W^0\right)`$ (9)   
where:

$`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W^0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\pi \alpha (m_Z^2)}{\sqrt{2}G_Fm_Z^2}}`$ (10)   
are extracted. These parameters are very sensitive to radiative corrections and thus the influence of physics beyond the SM, hence also very sensitive to non-SM TGCs. It is interesting to note that $`ϵ_2`$ and $`ϵ_b`$ do not, on the one-loop level, depend on the yet unknown Higgs-mass $`m_H`$. Here $`\mathrm{\Delta }\rho `$ stands for radiative corrections to the $`\rho `$-parameter , $`\mathrm{\Delta }r_w`$ describes corrections to the $`G_F`$-$`M_W`$ relation and $`\mathrm{\Delta }k^{}`$ relates $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W^0`$ to the effective electroweak mixing angle . As the fermion coupling constants depend on the $`ϵ`$-parameters one can extract these from the measurements reported in table 1 (except the top-quark mass), which all depend on $`g_V`$, $`g_A`$ or $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W`$. A simultaneous fit to all four parameters and in addition to the electromagnetic coupling constant $`\alpha _{em}(m_Z)`$, the strong coupling constant $`\alpha _s(m_Z)`$ and $`m_Z`$ gives the numbers quoted in table 2. The computation of the SM expectations shows that these values are in good agreement with the measured ones, and they are also in good agreement with other recent computations . One finds strong correlations between $`ϵ_b`$ and $`\alpha _s`$ as well as for $`ϵ_1`$ and $`ϵ_3`$. The latter is visible in figure 2, showing the two-dimensional contours of each pair of $`ϵ`$-parameters. These contour curves are compared with the evolution of the $`ϵ`$-parameters as a function of the TGC coupling constants.

The dependence of the $`ϵ`$-parameters on the WWV couplings is shown in the following equations :

$`{\displaystyle \frac{12\pi }{\alpha }}\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ_1`$ $`=\left\{\left[{\displaystyle \frac{27}{2}}\mathrm{tan}^2\theta _W\right]{\displaystyle \frac{m_Z^2}{m_W^2}}\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{m_W^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{9}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{m_Z^2m_H^2}{m_W^4}}\left[\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{m_H^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\right]\right\}\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa _\gamma `$   
$`+\left\{\left[\mathrm{tan}^2\theta _W\mathrm{cot}^2\theta _W\right]{\displaystyle \frac{9}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{m_H^2}{m_W^2}}\left[\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{m_H^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\right]\right\}\mathrm{\Delta }g_Z^1`$ (11)   
$`{\displaystyle \frac{12\pi }{\alpha }}\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ_2`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{m_Z^2}{m_W^2}}\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{m_W^2}}\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa _\gamma +\mathrm{cot}^2\theta _W\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{m_W^2}}\mathrm{\Delta }g_Z^1`$ (12)   
$`{\displaystyle \frac{12\pi }{\alpha }}\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ_3`$ $`=\left\{\left[\mathrm{cos}^4\theta _W7\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _W{\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}\right]{\displaystyle \frac{m_Z^2}{m_W^2}}\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{m_W^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{m_H^2}{m_W^2}}\left[\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{m_W^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\right]\right\}\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa _\gamma `$   
$`+\left\{10\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _W+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}\right\}\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{m_W^2}}\mathrm{\Delta }g_Z^1`$ (13)   
$`\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ_b`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{m_Z^2m_t^2}{64\pi ^2m_W^4}}\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{m_W^2}}\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa _\gamma `$   
$`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cot}^2\theta _W}{64\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{m_Z^2m_t^2}{m_H^4}}\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{m_W^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{3\mathrm{cot}^2\theta _W}{32\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{m_t^2}{m_W^2}}\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{m_W^2}}\right]\mathrm{\Delta }g_Z^1`$ (14)   
These expressions are based on the constraints between TGCs quoted earlier. All non-standard contributions are logarithmically divergent. The coupling parameters, that are used here, are defined in dependence on the new physics scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and a form factor f coming from the new physics effect, eg.

$`\mathrm{\Delta }g_Z^1`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{m_Z^2}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}}f.`$ (15)   
Thus the coupling parameters vanish in the limit of a large new physics scale, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{}`$. The new physics scale in the following measurement is set to 1 TeV. In addition a Higgs-mass of 300 GeV is assumed.

A fit using equations 11 to 14 and the difference of the measured values of the $`ϵ`$-parameters and the ones expected in the SM as shown in table 2 is used to determine the TGC coupling parameters $`\mathrm{\Delta }g_Z^1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa _\gamma `$. The errors on the SM predictions of the $`ϵ`$-parameters are included, neglecting their correlations. The $`\chi ^2`$ curves of a fit to each of these coupling constants, setting the other to its SM value of zero, is shown in figure 3. One finds the following results:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }g_Z^1`$ $`=0.017\pm 0.018`$ (16)   
$`\mathrm{or}`$   
$`\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa _\gamma `$ $`=0.016\pm 0.019.`$ (17)   
If both couplings are allowed to vary in the fit, one finds the contour plot in figure 4. The corresponding numerical values of the TGC-parameters are

$`\mathrm{\Delta }g_Z^1`$ $`=0.013\pm 0.027`$   
$`\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa _\gamma `$ $`=0.005\pm 0.029,`$ (18)   
with a correlation of 75.5 percent.

The SM expectation of zero for both parameters agrees well with this measurement. As 1 TeV is the lower limit of the new physics scale and the couplings depend inversely on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, the errors decrease with increasing $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Higher Higgs masses decrease also the errors on the TGC, while a lower Higgs mass increases the error. Assuming a 100 GeV Higgs, the error on $`\mathrm{\Delta }g_Z^1`$ increases by 1% of the error, while the one-dimensional error on $`\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa _\gamma `$ increases to 0.033. The error of 5 GeV on $`m_t`$, as quoted in table 1 has a negligible impact on the result.

The results presented above are more precise than recent direct measurements of the LEP and TEVATRON collaborations : $`\mathrm{\Delta }g_Z^1=0.00_{0.11}^{+0.12}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\kappa _\gamma =0.28_{0.27}^{+0.33}`$. Here the parameters are negatively correlated with -54 percent. The direct measurement is however more suitable for a general test of the TGCs while the indirect measurement tests TGCs only in particular models.

Recent computations  parametrise also the dependence of $`ϵ_b`$ on the coupling constants $`\lambda _\gamma `$ and $`g_Z^5`$ giving access to a more general view of the TGC couplings. Computations of the dependence of $`ϵ_1`$, $`ϵ_2`$ and $`ϵ_3`$ on the TGCs $`\lambda _\gamma `$ and $`g_Z^5`$ would be most useful to measure also these coupling constants more precisely.

## 3 Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to S. Riemann for bringing the possibility of the indirect measurement of TGCs to our attention. We thank F.Caravaglios and G.Altarelli for clarifying discussions on the $`ϵ`$ parameters and T. Hebbeker, W.Lohmann and T. Riemann for useful comments.