Probing contact interactions at high energy lepton colliders

Fermion compositeness and other new physics can be signaled by the presence of a strong four-fermion contact interaction. Here the authors present a study of {ell}{ell}qq and {ell}{ell}{ell}{prime}{ell}{prime} contact interactions using the reactions: {ell}{sup +}{ell}{sup {minus}} {r_arrow} {ell}{prime}{sup +} {ell}{prime}{sup {minus}}, b{anti b}, c{anti c} at future e{sup +}e{sup {minus}} linear colliders with {radical}s = 0.5--5 TeV and {mu}{sup +}{mu}{sup {minus}} colliders with {radical}s = 0.5, 4 TeV. They find that very large compositeness scales can be probed at these machines and that the use of polarized beams can unravel their underlying helicity structure.