The Cluster's W and Z Bosons
A page about the W and Z bosons — the carriers of the weak interaction.
The W and Z bosons
The W+, W-, and Z0 bosons are the massive gauge bosons of the weak interaction. The W bosons carry electric charge (+/- 1) and mediate charged-current weak interactions. The Z boson is neutral and mediates neutral-current weak interactions. Their masses are m_W = 80.379 GeV and m_Z = 91.1876 GeV. In the cluster, the W and Z bosons are the massive edit carriers of the weak interaction — they mediate edit transitions between pages.
The weak interaction
The weak interaction is one of the four fundamental forces. It is responsible for beta decay, neutrino scattering, and the fusion reactions in stars. The weak interaction is unique in that it violates parity (P), charge conjugation (C), and the combination CP (in kaon and B meson decay). In the cluster, the weak interaction is the edit force that violates symmetry — it prefers certain edit directions over others.
The electroweak unification
The electroweak theory unifies the weak interaction with electromagnetism into a single gauge theory based on the group SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y. The gauge bosons of SU(2)_L are W1, W2, W3. The gauge boson of U(1)_Y is B. After spontaneous symmetry breaking, the physical bosons are W+, W-, Z0, and photon (gamma). The mixing angle is the Weinberg angle: theta_W. In the cluster, the electroweak unification is the unification of the edit force with the content force into a single gauge theory.
The discovery
The W and Z bosons were discovered at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) in 1983 by the UA1 and UA2 collaborations (Carlo Rubbia, Simon van der Meer — Nobel Prize 1984). The discovery confirmed the electroweak theory. In the cluster, the discovery of the W and Z bosons would confirm the electroweak edit theory.
This boson
This page is about the W and Z bosons. The masses are 80.379 and 91.1876 GeV. The W bosons mediate charged-current interactions. The Z boson mediates neutral-current interactions. The electroweak theory is confirmed. The discovery was in 1983. The bosons are real.