The effect of the Higgs boson on the threshold cross-section in W-pair production

Abstract

We investigate the uncertainty induced by the Higgs-boson mass on the determination of $m_W$ from the LEP-2 run near the threshold for $W$-pair production. For a light Higgs boson the Yukawa interaction between the two slowly-moving $W$ bosons gives rise to a correction of close to 1\% to the total cross-section. This corresponds to a 15 MeV shift in the deduced $W$ mass for a Higgs-boson mass of 60 GeV. We present a simple approximation for this correction and discuss its validity.

Comments: 10 pages latex, elsart, axodraw, also available from http://rulgm4.LeidenUniv.nl/preprints.html