The equivalence theorem and effective Lagrangians

We point out that the equivalence theorem, which relates the amplitude for a process with external longitudinally polarized vector bosons to the amplitude in which the longitudinal vector bosons are replaced by the corresponding pseudo-Goldstone bosons, is not valid for effective Lagrangians. However, a more general formulation of this theorem also holds for effective interactions. The generalized theorem can be utilized to determine the high-energy behaviour of scattering processes just by power counting and to simplify the calculation of the corresponding amplitudes. We apply this theorem to the phenomenologically most interesting terms describing effective interactions of the electroweak vector and Higgs bosons in order to examine their effects on vector-boson scattering and on vector-boson-pair production in $fbar f$ annihilation. The use of the equivalence theorem in the literature is examined.