The intrinsic upper limit to the beam energy of an electron-positron circular collider

In this paper we predict that there exists an intrinsic upper limit to the beam energy of an e/sup +/e/sup -/ circular collider due to the beam-beam effects. The maximum beam energy is given by E/sub 0, max/=85.17 /spl radic/N/sub IP/ (GeV), where N/sub IP/ is the number of the interaction points in the ring. It is concluded that LEP is the only machine on this planet which has the potential to test the validity of this theoretical prediction by reducing its interaction points to one.