Interference radiative phenomena in the production of heavy unstable particles

Abstract
We discuss the characteristic interference phenomena, including real as well as virtual radiative corrections, to the inclusive cross sections for production of heavy unstable systems such as tt¯ or W+W pairs. We demonstrate explicitly the (fortunate) cancellation between emissions associated with the production of unstable particles and with their decays, and between emissions accompanying the decay stages. As a result the total interference effect is shown to be of O(αiΓM) or better (where αi=α or αs as appropriate).