Intermediate-boson and dilepton production in hadronic interactions

Various relations are obtained between dilepton and intermediate-boson (W) production cross sections. It is pointed out that, ifthe dilepton production obeys a scaling law, then its measurement at presently available energies can provide a lower bound for the production of W bosons in future high-energy experiments. We also calculate W production by using a Drell--Yan model with and without color. We find that the model without color is quite successful when compared with the dilepton production data. Estimates of the leptonic and hadronic decay rates of the W boson are also given. (AIP)