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Weak Interactions

Skipping ahead to the 1980's, the virtual quanta mediating the weak interaction (the force next weakest to the gravitational force) have only recentlygif been identified directly in immense experiments at the biggest accelerators. These are the and `` intermediate vector bosons'' whose masses are shown in Table 1.3.2. What can you conclude about the range of the weak interaction? [This would make a great exam question!]

  
Table: The intermediary particles that convey various forces between other elementary particles.

In a unification of the weak and electromagnetic interactions that has won acclaim for numerous theorists over the past two decades or so, the and the W and Z bosons have been shown to be merely different aspects of the same `` electroweak'' force, despite their gross dissimilarities in mass and lifetime.gif