Electro-weak physics with forward dynamics at LEP

PrefaceThis book encompasses a three-year research activity period, that I spentatthe University of Pavia, and it concludes my Ph.D. experience, which wasdedicated to the study of the phenomenology of elementary particles. Theguideline of mywork was given by the precision tests of the Standard Modelperformed at lep,sothat a direct comparison of the theoretical predictionswith the results of the experimental collaborations was, whenever possible,looked for. This was also the motivation to join the lep2 Monte CarloWorkshop, which started this year at cern, since the work undergone couldcontribute to it while being fed-back.The work, here presented, was produced in collaboration with the pheno-menology group of the UniversityofPavia, namely G. Montagna, O. Nicrosiniand F. Piccinini, and with M. Moretti from the University of Ferrara. I amgrateful to them for the assistance they gave to me and because they triedto teach me how to work. I also acknowledge F. Miglietta from the Uni-versity of Pavia for many useful discussions, and R. Kellogg, D. Strom andM. Verzocchi from the opal collaboration, whichprovided the link with theexperimental side. Last, but not the least, Ithankthe infn section and theUniversity of Pavia for support and for computer facilities (alas, phenome-nology can need cumbersome calculations).During these years I lived and studied close to many people which Isincerely want to thank. Thus, many thank to my parents, which are notyet get tired of my studies, and to a very long and disordered list of friends:Renzo, Alessandra, Alessandro, Nando, Chiara, Irene, Emanuele, Damiano,Walter, Barbara, Marco and Andrea. Pavia, October 25, 1999