Non-factorizable photonic corrections to e +e − → WW → 4 fermions

Abstract

We study the non-factorizable corrections to W-pair-mediated four-fermion production in e +e − annihilation in double-pole approximation. We show how these corrections can be combined with the known corrections to the production and the decay of on-shell W-boson pairs, and how the full off-shell Coulomb singularity is included. Moreover, we find that the actual form of the real non-factorizable corrections depends on the parametrization of phase space, more precisely, on the definition of the invariant masses of the resonant W bosons. For the usual parametrization the full analytical results for the non-factorizable corrections are presented. Our analytical and numerical results for the non-factorizable corrections agree with a recent calculation, which was found to differ from a previous one. The detailed numerical discussion covers the invariant-mass distribution, various angular distributions, and the lepton-energy distribution for leptonic final states.