Gauge boson
Encyclopedia
In particle physics
, gauge bosons are boson
ic particles that act as carrier
s of the fundamental force
s of nature. More specifically, elementary particle
s whose interaction
s are described by gauge theory
exert forces on each other by the exchange of gauge bosons, usually as virtual particle
s.
, there are three kinds of gauge bosons:
Each corresponds to one of the three Standard Model interactions: photons are gauge bosons of the electromagnetic interaction, W and Z bosons carry the weak interaction
, and the gluons carry the strong interaction
. Due to color confinement, isolated gluons do not occur at low energies. What could result instead are massive glueball
s .
d gauge theory
, gauge bosons are quanta
of the gauge field
s. Consequently, there are as many gauge bosons as there are generators of the gauge field. In quantum electrodynamics
, the gauge group is U(1); in this simple case, there is only one gauge boson. In quantum chromodynamics
, the more complicated group SU(3) has eight generators, corresponding to the eight gluons. The three W and Z bosons correspond (roughly) to the three generators of SU(2) in GWS theory.
equations for massless particles. Therefore, at a naïve theoretical level all gauge bosons are required to be massless, and the forces that they describe are required to be long-ranged. The conflict between this idea and experimental evidence that the weak interaction has a very short range requires further theoretical insight.
According to the Standard Model
, the W and Z bosons
gain mass via the Higgs mechanism
. In the Higgs mechanism, the four gauge bosons (of SU(2)×U(1) symmetry) of the unified electroweak interaction
couple to a Higgs field. This field undergoes spontaneous symmetry breaking
due to the shape of its interaction potential. As a result, the universe is permeated by a nonzero Higgs vacuum expectation value
(VEV). This VEV couples to three of the electroweak gauge bosons (the Ws and Z), giving them mass; the remaining gauge boson remains massless (the photon). This theory also predicts the existence of a scalar Higgs boson
, which has not yet been observed.
would exist. These would direct interactions between quark
s and lepton
s, violating conservation of baryon number and causing proton decay
. These bosons would be extremely massive (even more so than the W and Z bosons
) due to symmetry breaking. No evidence of such bosons (for example, from proton decays being seen in Super-Kamiokande
) has ever been seen.
. In the absence of experimental evidence and a mathematically coherent theory of quantum gravity
, it is unknown whether this would be a gauge boson or not. The role of gauge invariance in general relativity
is played by a similar symmetry: diffeomorphism invariance.
W and Z bosons
).
Particle physics
Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...
, gauge bosons are boson
Boson
In particle physics, bosons are subatomic particles that obey Bose–Einstein statistics. Several bosons can occupy the same quantum state. The word boson derives from the name of Satyendra Nath Bose....
ic particles that act as carrier
Force carrier
In particle physics, quantum field theories such as the Standard Model describe nature in terms of fields. Each field has a complementary description as the set of particles of a particular type...
s of the fundamental force
Fundamental interaction
In particle physics, fundamental interactions are the ways that elementary particles interact with one another...
s of nature. More specifically, elementary particle
Elementary particle
In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a particle not known to have substructure; that is, it is not known to be made up of smaller particles. If an elementary particle truly has no substructure, then it is one of the basic building blocks of the universe from which...
s whose interaction
Interaction
Interaction is a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another. The idea of a two-way effect is essential in the concept of interaction, as opposed to a one-way causal effect...
s are described by gauge theory
Gauge theory
In physics, gauge invariance is the property of a field theory in which different configurations of the underlying fundamental but unobservable fields result in identical observable quantities. A theory with such a property is called a gauge theory...
exert forces on each other by the exchange of gauge bosons, usually as virtual particle
Virtual particle
In physics, a virtual particle is a particle that exists for a limited time and space. The energy and momentum of a virtual particle are uncertain according to the uncertainty principle...
s.
Standard Model gauge bosons
In the Standard ModelStandard Model
The Standard Model of particle physics is a theory concerning the electromagnetic, weak, and strong nuclear interactions, which mediate the dynamics of the known subatomic particles. Developed throughout the mid to late 20th century, the current formulation was finalized in the mid 1970s upon...
, there are three kinds of gauge bosons:
- photons,
- W and Z bosonsW and Z bosonsThe W and Z bosons are the elementary particles that mediate the weak interaction; their symbols are , and . The W bosons have a positive and negative electric charge of 1 elementary charge respectively and are each other's antiparticle. The Z boson is electrically neutral and its own...
, and - gluonGluonGluons are elementary particles which act as the exchange particles for the color force between quarks, analogous to the exchange of photons in the electromagnetic force between two charged particles....
s.
Each corresponds to one of the three Standard Model interactions: photons are gauge bosons of the electromagnetic interaction, W and Z bosons carry the weak interaction
Weak interaction
Weak interaction , is one of the four fundamental forces of nature, alongside the strong nuclear force, electromagnetism, and gravity. It is responsible for the radioactive decay of subatomic particles and initiates the process known as hydrogen fusion in stars...
, and the gluons carry the strong interaction
Strong interaction
In particle physics, the strong interaction is one of the four fundamental interactions of nature, the others being electromagnetism, the weak interaction and gravitation. As with the other fundamental interactions, it is a non-contact force...
. Due to color confinement, isolated gluons do not occur at low energies. What could result instead are massive glueball
Glueball
In particle physics, a glueball is a hypothetical composite particle. It consists solely of gluon particles, without valence quarks. Such a state is possible because gluons carry color charge and experience the strong interaction...
s .
Multiplicity of gauge bosons
In a quantizeQuantization (physics)
In physics, quantization is the process of explaining a classical understanding of physical phenomena in terms of a newer understanding known as "quantum mechanics". It is a procedure for constructing a quantum field theory starting from a classical field theory. This is a generalization of the...
d gauge theory
Gauge theory
In physics, gauge invariance is the property of a field theory in which different configurations of the underlying fundamental but unobservable fields result in identical observable quantities. A theory with such a property is called a gauge theory...
, gauge bosons are quanta
Quantum
In physics, a quantum is the minimum amount of any physical entity involved in an interaction. Behind this, one finds the fundamental notion that a physical property may be "quantized," referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This means that the magnitude can take on only certain discrete...
of the gauge field
Gauge theory
In physics, gauge invariance is the property of a field theory in which different configurations of the underlying fundamental but unobservable fields result in identical observable quantities. A theory with such a property is called a gauge theory...
s. Consequently, there are as many gauge bosons as there are generators of the gauge field. In quantum electrodynamics
Quantum electrodynamics
Quantum electrodynamics is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quantum mechanics and special relativity is achieved...
, the gauge group is U(1); in this simple case, there is only one gauge boson. In quantum chromodynamics
Quantum chromodynamics
In theoretical physics, quantum chromodynamics is a theory of the strong interaction , a fundamental force describing the interactions of the quarks and gluons making up hadrons . It is the study of the SU Yang–Mills theory of color-charged fermions...
, the more complicated group SU(3) has eight generators, corresponding to the eight gluons. The three W and Z bosons correspond (roughly) to the three generators of SU(2) in GWS theory.
Massive gauge bosons
For technical reasons involving gauge invariance, gauge bosons are described mathematically by fieldField (physics)
In physics, a field is a physical quantity associated with each point of spacetime. A field can be classified as a scalar field, a vector field, a spinor field, or a tensor field according to whether the value of the field at each point is a scalar, a vector, a spinor or, more generally, a tensor,...
equations for massless particles. Therefore, at a naïve theoretical level all gauge bosons are required to be massless, and the forces that they describe are required to be long-ranged. The conflict between this idea and experimental evidence that the weak interaction has a very short range requires further theoretical insight.
According to the Standard Model
Standard Model
The Standard Model of particle physics is a theory concerning the electromagnetic, weak, and strong nuclear interactions, which mediate the dynamics of the known subatomic particles. Developed throughout the mid to late 20th century, the current formulation was finalized in the mid 1970s upon...
, the W and Z bosons
W and Z bosons
The W and Z bosons are the elementary particles that mediate the weak interaction; their symbols are , and . The W bosons have a positive and negative electric charge of 1 elementary charge respectively and are each other's antiparticle. The Z boson is electrically neutral and its own...
gain mass via the Higgs mechanism
Higgs mechanism
In particle physics, the Higgs mechanism is the process in which gauge bosons in a gauge theory can acquire non-vanishing masses through absorption of Nambu-Goldstone bosons arising in spontaneous symmetry breaking....
. In the Higgs mechanism, the four gauge bosons (of SU(2)×U(1) symmetry) of the unified electroweak interaction
Electroweak interaction
In particle physics, the electroweak interaction is the unified description of two of the four known fundamental interactions of nature: electromagnetism and the weak interaction. Although these two forces appear very different at everyday low energies, the theory models them as two different...
couple to a Higgs field. This field undergoes spontaneous symmetry breaking
Spontaneous symmetry breaking
Spontaneous symmetry breaking is the process by which a system described in a theoretically symmetrical way ends up in an apparently asymmetric state....
due to the shape of its interaction potential. As a result, the universe is permeated by a nonzero Higgs vacuum expectation value
Vacuum expectation value
In quantum field theory the vacuum expectation value of an operator is its average, expected value in the vacuum. The vacuum expectation value of an operator O is usually denoted by \langle O\rangle...
(VEV). This VEV couples to three of the electroweak gauge bosons (the Ws and Z), giving them mass; the remaining gauge boson remains massless (the photon). This theory also predicts the existence of a scalar Higgs boson
Higgs boson
The Higgs boson is a hypothetical massive elementary particle that is predicted to exist by the Standard Model of particle physics. Its existence is postulated as a means of resolving inconsistencies in the Standard Model...
, which has not yet been observed.
Grand unification theories
In grand unified theories (GUTs), additional gauge bosons called X and Y bosonsX and Y bosons
In particle physics, the X and Y bosons are hypothetical elementary particles analogous to the W and Z bosons, but corresponding to a new type of force predicted by the Georgi–Glashow model, a grand unified theory.-Details:The X and Y bosons couple quarks to leptons, allowing violation of the...
would exist. These would direct interactions between quark
Quark
A quark is an elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei. Due to a phenomenon known as color confinement, quarks are never directly...
s and lepton
Lepton
A lepton is an elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. The best known of all leptons is the electron which governs nearly all of chemistry as it is found in atoms and is directly tied to all chemical properties. Two main classes of leptons exist: charged leptons , and neutral...
s, violating conservation of baryon number and causing proton decay
Proton decay
In particle physics, proton decay is a hypothetical form of radioactive decay in which the proton decays into lighter subatomic particles, such as a neutral pion and a positron...
. These bosons would be extremely massive (even more so than the W and Z bosons
W and Z bosons
The W and Z bosons are the elementary particles that mediate the weak interaction; their symbols are , and . The W bosons have a positive and negative electric charge of 1 elementary charge respectively and are each other's antiparticle. The Z boson is electrically neutral and its own...
) due to symmetry breaking. No evidence of such bosons (for example, from proton decays being seen in Super-Kamiokande
Super-Kamiokande
Super-Kamiokande is a neutrino observatory which is under Mount Kamioka near the city of Hida, Gifu Prefecture, Japan...
) has ever been seen.
Gravitons
The fourth fundamental interaction, gravity, may also be carried by a boson, called the gravitonGraviton
In physics, the graviton is a hypothetical elementary particle that mediates the force of gravitation in the framework of quantum field theory. If it exists, the graviton must be massless and must have a spin of 2...
. In the absence of experimental evidence and a mathematically coherent theory of quantum gravity
Quantum gravity
Quantum gravity is the field of theoretical physics which attempts to develop scientific models that unify quantum mechanics with general relativity...
, it is unknown whether this would be a gauge boson or not. The role of gauge invariance in general relativity
General relativity
General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916. It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics...
is played by a similar symmetry: diffeomorphism invariance.
W' and Z' bosons
W' and Z' bosons refer to hypothetical new gauge bosons (named in analogy with the Standard ModelStandard Model
The Standard Model of particle physics is a theory concerning the electromagnetic, weak, and strong nuclear interactions, which mediate the dynamics of the known subatomic particles. Developed throughout the mid to late 20th century, the current formulation was finalized in the mid 1970s upon...
W and Z bosons
W and Z bosons
The W and Z bosons are the elementary particles that mediate the weak interaction; their symbols are , and . The W bosons have a positive and negative electric charge of 1 elementary charge respectively and are each other's antiparticle. The Z boson is electrically neutral and its own...
).
See also
- BosonBosonIn particle physics, bosons are subatomic particles that obey Bose–Einstein statistics. Several bosons can occupy the same quantum state. The word boson derives from the name of Satyendra Nath Bose....
- Force carrierForce carrierIn particle physics, quantum field theories such as the Standard Model describe nature in terms of fields. Each field has a complementary description as the set of particles of a particular type...
- Electroweak interactionElectroweak interactionIn particle physics, the electroweak interaction is the unified description of two of the four known fundamental interactions of nature: electromagnetism and the weak interaction. Although these two forces appear very different at everyday low energies, the theory models them as two different...
- Fundamental interactionFundamental interactionIn particle physics, fundamental interactions are the ways that elementary particles interact with one another...
- Quantum chromodynamicsQuantum chromodynamicsIn theoretical physics, quantum chromodynamics is a theory of the strong interaction , a fundamental force describing the interactions of the quarks and gluons making up hadrons . It is the study of the SU Yang–Mills theory of color-charged fermions...
- Quantum electrodynamicsQuantum electrodynamicsQuantum electrodynamics is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quantum mechanics and special relativity is achieved...
- 1964 PRL symmetry breaking papers
External links
- Explanation of gauge boson and gauge fields by Christopher T. HillChristopher T. HillChristopher T. Hill is a theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He did undergraduate work in physics at M.I.T. , and graduate work at Caltech...