Electroweak Coupling Constants in the Leptonic Reactions e+ e- ---> e+ e- and e+ e- ---> mu+ mu- and Search for Scalar Leptons

Abstract A high statistics experiment was performed on Bhabha scattering at energies between 14 and 34 GeV. Good agreement with QED was observed. The combined data on Bhabha scattering and μ pair production were found to agree with the standard theory of electroweak interaction giving sin 2 θ = 0.27 −0.07 +0.06 . Assuming for the Z 0 mass a value of 90 GeV the leptonic weak coupling constants were determined to g V 2 = −0.04 ± 0.06 and g A 2 = 0.35 ± 0.09. A search for scalar leptons sets lower limits on the mass of scalar electrons of M s e > 16.6 GeV and of scalar muons of M s μ > 16.4 GeV.