If the electroweak symmetry-breaking sector becomes strongly interacting at high energies, it can be probed through longitudinal $W$ scattering. We present a model with many inelastic channels in the $W_L W_L$ scattering process, corresponding to the production of heavy fermion pairs. These heavy fermions affect the elastic scattering of $W_L$'s by propagating in loops, greatly reducing the amplitudes in some charge channels. We conclude that the symmetry-breaking sector cannot be fully explored by using, for example, the $W_L^\pm W_L^\pm$ mode alone, even when no resonance is present; all $W_L W_L \to W_L W_L$ scattering modes must be measured.
Categories: hep-ph