INSTANTON-INDUCED CROSS-SECTION AT HIGH ENERGIES: LEADING ORDER AND BEYOND

Abstract

We study the total cross-section of high energy collisions in the one-instanton sector of purely bosonic theories with instantons. We find that in the limit g² → 0, E/E _sph = fixed , the leading behavior of the total cross-section is σ _lot ~ exp [1/g²(−2S₀ + F(E/E _sph ))], where S₀ is the instanton action. In the electroweak theory at E/E _sph ≪ 1, the function F(E/E _sph ) is determined by the gauge boson part of the instanton configuration and its explicit form is found.