EFFECTIVE FIELD-THEORY AND ELECTROWEAK RADIATIVE-CORRECTIONS

I discuss the S- and T-parameters introduced by Peskin and Takeuchi to characterize the "oblique" radiative corrections to the electroweak interactions. Following Golden and Randall, and Holdom and Terning, I re-interpret these parameters in an effective field theory language. I hope to draw attention to the fact that the effective field theory framework is not only simpler and more transparent, but it actually provides information about the corrections that goes beyond perturbation theory. I illustrate the power of this approach by showing that it automatically implements the "resummation" of the quadratic m(t) dependence in the oblique corrections conjectured by Consoli et al. I also show how to incorporate (or "resum") all the logarithmic dependence on m(H) and m(t). I also comment briefly on the non-oblique corrections. In particular, I identify all the sources of leading m(t)2-dependence in the low-energy theory.