GAUGE DEPENDENCE OF BASIC ELECTROWEAK CORRECTIONS OF THE STANDARD MODEL

The gauge dependence of some basic one-loop electroweak corrections of the Standard Model (SM) is succinctly described in terms of three functions of the vector boson masses, the gauge parameters and the invariant momentum transfer. We consider self-energies, tadpoles and vertex and box diagrams relevant to four-fermion processes. The analysis of the latter is greatly simplified by using current correlation functions and their associated current algebra. A number of applications are discussed, including the gauge properties of partial amplitudes that have played an interesting role in recent discussions of electroweak physics and the Z0 mass. The hypothetical cancellation of quadratic divergencies in the SM and the corresponding predictions for the Higgs boson mass are briefly reviewed in an appendix.