Baryon and lepton number violation in the standard model at high energies

We discuss the possibility that baryon and lepton number violating processes in the electroweak theory are unsuppressed at energies above 10 TeV. The relevant processes are those which involve a large number, Ο(1/αw), of W±, Z, and Higgs bosons. In leading-order dilute instanton gas approximation the amplitudes for processes like q+q → 7antiq+3antil+nwW(Z) + nhH are very similar to point-like amplitudes and of order ∼ n ! exp(-2π/αw), where n = nw + nh. Both features, the locality and the n-dependence of the amplitudes, suggest that baryon and lepton number violating processes in association with multiparticle production of bosons become strong, i.e. reach the unitarity limit with cross sections in the pb-range, already at parton CM energies of the order of 10 TeV with possible applications at future pp colliders