Towards the semiclassical calculability of high energy instanton cross sections

We argue that the baryon number violating cross sections of two-particle collisions at high energies can be evaluated by studying the rate of instanton-like transitions for multiparticle 'semiclassical' states. In the limit g2→0, where g is the coupling constant, this transition rate has a semiclassical form, σ(E)∝exp[(1/g2)F(E/Esph)], while by an appropriate choice of the initial state, σ(E) can be made close to the two-particle cross section at CM energy E. Therefore, the two-particle cross section is argued to have the same exponential form, with the function F(E/Esph) calculable by semiclassical methods. (orig.)