CONTRIBUTIONS OF CERN LEP-1.5, LEP-2 AND LINEAR-COLLIDER DATA TO INDIRECT CONSTRAINTS ON NON-ABELIAN GAUGE-BOSON COUPLINGS

It is possible to place direct constraints on WW gamma and WWZ couplin gs by studying their tree-level contributions to the process e(+)e(-) --> W+W-. However, these couplings also contribute at the loop level t o e(+)e(-) --> <(f)over bar f> processes where f is any standard-model fermion. In this paper the available LEP 1.5 and LEP 2 data, the anti cipated LEP 2 data and possible linear collider data for these latter processes is combined with low-energy and Z-pole data to place indirec t constraints on nonstandard WW gamma and WWZ couplings. The direct an d indirect constraints are then compared. An effective Lagrangian is u sed to describe the new physics. In order that the implications of thi s analysis are as broad as possible, both the light-Higgs scenario, de scribed by an effective Lagrangian with a linear realization of the sy mmetry-breaking sector, and the strongly interacting scenario, describ ed by the electroweak chiral Lagrangian, are considered.