e+e- Physics at LEP Energies: Zedology

It is clear that the Z/sup 0/ peak will be a very important landmark in e/sup +/e/sup -/ collisions. If its properties resemble at all the predictions of simpler gauge models such as the Weinberg-Salam model, it will produce about an event per second for a LEP luminosity of the order of 10/sup 32/ cm/sup -2/ sec/sup -1/. As far as the weak interactions are concerned, Z/sup 0/ decays present the opportunity to measure in detail the neutral weak couplings of all lepton and quark flavours with masses <or approximately=m/sub Z/2/. As for the strong interactions, one can imagine experiments with 0(10/sup 6/ or 10/sup 7 /) hadronic events at Q/sup 2/=0(10/sup 4/) GeV/sup 2/, far more than are conceivable in any experiments at space-like Q/sup 2(7)/. These events will provide a unique window into the dynamics of quarks and gluons at short distances.