UNITARITY BOUNDS ON WW SCATTERING AND ELECTROWEAK TESTS AT LEP

Replacing elementary Higgs exchange in vector-boson scattering by an a ngular-momentum-zero unitarity-saturating partial wave amplitude descr ibed by a dispersion relation which incorporates low-energy gauge theo ry and high-energy partial-wave unitarity constraints, we find an uppe r bound of LAMBDA less than or similar to LAMBDA(max) congruent-to 0.8 TeV for the scale, LAMBDA, at which saturation of partial wave unitar ity is to occur. Upon inserting the partial wave amplitude into a nove l integral representation for the bosonic vacuum polarization contribu tion to the electroweak rho parameter, DELTA(rhob), we establish an up per bound on -DELTA(rhob)(less than or similar to 0.033), while for th e case of the elementary Higgs scalar, the integral representation rep roduces the well known m(H)/m(W) formula for DELTA(rhob). The upper bo und on -DELTA(rhob) implies that the value of the mass of the top quar k extracted from LEP1 measurements becomes justified even in the case when the Higgs scalar is replaced by a strong-interaction-like J = 0 p artial wave.