W and Z bosons weak-force boson particle. Thus, this interaction requires a Z boson. These bosons are among the heavyweights of the elementary particles. With masses of and , respectively, the W and Z bosons are almost 80 times as massive as the proton – heavier, even, than entire iron atoms. Their high masses limit the range of the weak interaction. By way of contrast, the photon is the force carrier of the electromagnetic force and has zero mass, consistent with the infinite range of electromagnetism; the hypothetical graviton is also expected to have zero mass. (Although gluons are also presumed to have zero
Elementary particle general relativity. There may be hypothetical elementary particles not described by the Standard Model, such as the graviton, the particle that would carry the gravitational force, and sparticles, supersymmetric partners of the ordinary particles. The 12 fundamental fermions are divided into 3 generations of 4 particles each. Half of the fermions are leptons, three of which have an electric charge of −1, called the electron (), the muon (), and the tau (), the other three leptons are neutrinos (, , ), which are the only elementary fermions with no electric or color charge. The remaining six particles are quarks