Two-Photon Cross Section forW-Pair Production by Colliding Beams

We calculate the total cross section for $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to e^{+}{e}^{-}{W}^{+}{W}^{-}$, a process which proceeds via two virtual photons. If the intermediate boson ($W^{\pm }$) has no anomalous magnetic moment and pointlike vertices, this process can yield a larger cross section than the one-photon process $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to W^{+}{W}^{-}$ at sufficiently high energies. Otherwise, the one-photon mechanism is dominant. Numerical results for several values of $m_W$ and the magnetic moment are presented. The effect of $Z$ exchange in a Weinberg-type model is shown to be negligible in these results.