The equivalence theorem for the heavy-Higgs Standard Model and the gauged nonlinear σ-model

The equivalence theorem states that the leading part of the amplitude for a process with external longitudinally polarized vector bosons is given by the amplitude in which the longitudinal vector bosons are replaced by the corresponding pseudo-Goldstone bosons. The validity of this theorem within the standard model with a heavy Higgs boson and within the gauged nonlinear -model (in which the Higgs boson is absent) is shown. Furthermore it is examined to what extent also internal lines other than scalar lines can be neglected. A simple power-counting method is developed which determines the leading diagrams for a given process at an arbitrary loop order. This method is also applied to effective Lagrangians with additional nonstandard interaction terms of higher dimension (chiral Lagrangians).