Electroweak Bloch-Nordsieck violation at the TeV scale: "strong" weak interactions?

Hard processes at the TeV scale exhibit enhanced (double log) EW correction s even for inclusive observables, leading to violation of the Bloch-Nordsie ck theorem. This effect, previously related to the non-abelian nature of fr ee EW charges in the initial state (e(-)e(+), e(-) p, pp, ...), is here inv estigated for fermion initiated hard processes and to all orders in EW coup lings. We find that the effect is important, especially for lepton initiate d processes, producing weak effects that in some cases compete in magnitude with the strong ones. We show that this (double log) BN violating effect h as a universal energy dependence, related to the Sudakov form factor in the adjoint representation. The role of this form factor is to suppress cross section differences within a weak isospin doubler, so that at very large en ergy the cross sections for left-handed electron-positron and neutrino-posi tron scattering become equal. Finally, we briefly discuss the phenomenologi cal relevance of our results for future colliders. (C) 2000 Elsevier Scienc e B.V, All rights reserved.