Quantum chromodynamics observed particles make isospin and SU(3) multiplets. The approximate flavor symmetries do have associated gauge bosons, observed particles like the rho and the omega, but these particles are nothing like the gluons and they are not massless. They are emergent gauge bosons in an approximate string description of QCD. The dynamics of the quarks and gluons are controlled by the quantum chromodynamics Lagrangian. The gauge invariant QCD Lagrangian is where formula_1 is the quark field, a dynamical function of spacetime, in the fundamental representation of the SU(3) gauge group, indexed by formula_2; formula_3 is the gauge covariant derivative; the γ
Spontaneous symmetry breaking massive modes, like the plasma mode in a superconductor, or the Higgs mode observed in particle physics. In the standard model of particle physics, spontaneous symmetry breaking of the gauge symmetry associated with the electro-weak force generates masses for several particles, and separates the electromagnetic and weak forces. The W and Z bosons are the elementary particles that mediate the weak interaction, while the photon mediates the electromagnetic interaction. At energies much greater than 100 GeV all these particles behave in a similar manner. The Weinberg–Salam theory predicts that, at lower energies, this symmetry is broken so that the photon