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
Chirality (physics) the electroweak model breaks parity maximally. All its fermions are chiral Weyl fermions, which means that the charged weak gauge bosons only couple to left-handed quarks and leptons. (Note that the neutral electroweak Z boson couples to left "and" right-handed fermions.) Some theorists found this objectionable, and so conjectured a GUT extension of the weak force which has new, high energy W' and Z' bosons, which now couple with right handed quarks and leptons: to Here, SU(2) (pronounced SU(2) left) is none other than the above SU(2), while B−L is the baryon number minus the lepton number. The electric charge