LEP will be operating at cm energies above W pair threshold from 1996. The process e⁺e⁻ → W⁺W⁻ will provide a unique opportunity to test some important aspects of the Standard Model. The methodology of studying this process has been reviewed in this report. The study of the process will probe at the triple vector boson coupling. The sensitivity to anomalous coupling of W boson has been discussed in detail.

We summarize here the recent results from the four experiments at the large electron positron collider (LEP). These experiments provide precise measurements of theW and Z boson properties and their couplings to leptons and quarks. These measurements, together with measurements of the top quark andW boson masses in the Tevatron collider provide a stringent test of the standard electroweak theory. Searches for Higgs boson and supersymmetric particles have yielded null results so far giving rise to lower bounds in the parameter space.

We report studies on the multiple ionization of the N₂ molecule using intense, femtosecond laser pulses. We present details of the experimental characterisation of the light pulses and analysis and detection of the ions produced. Precautions to be taken in intense field ionization experiments are discussed. We illustrate the retrieval of information about different aspects of the ionization process (such as, kinetic energies of the fragments produced, dissociation bond lengths and information on the precursors to fragmentation) using coincidence techniques. We report results of the first measurements of the angular distribution of a highly charged fragment, N³⁺.