Production of three vector bosons in e+ e- annihilation as a test of W+/-, Z, γ self-interactions

We study the vector-boson production processes e⁺e^--->W⁺W^-Z and e⁺e^--->W⁺W^-γ which are directly affected by the trilinear and quadrilinear self-couplings of the W^+/-, Z and γ. Our analysis is based upon a single-parameter effective lagrangian model for these self-interactions which contains the standard model as a special case. Consequences for the phenomenology at an e⁺e^- collider of 500 GeV (NLC) are discussed, and fits of the free parameter around its standard model value are carried out.