We can, rather simply, describe the weak interaction and its mediator particles, the intermediate vector bosons W and Z. The very succesful theory of the weak interaction, based on an exchange of W- and Z-bosons, was completed by Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg at the end of the 60's. They managed to create a theory that, in a unifying way, describes all electromagnetic and weak interactions (sometimes referred to as electroweak interaction). The fundamental Feynman diagrams look like:

wpe9.jpg (3739 bytes) wpeA.jpg (3680 bytes)

Neutron decay

The Higgs mechanism


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