Gauge boson 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. For technical reasons involving gauge invariance, gauge bosons are described mathematically by field 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 and strong interactions have a very short range requires further theoretical insight. According to the Standard Model, the
W and Z bosons the pillars of the Standard Model of particle physics, particularly given the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson by the CMS and ATLAS experiments. The model predicts that W and Z bosons have the following masses: where g is the SU(2) gauge coupling, g' is U(1) gauge coupling, and v is the Higgs vacuum expectation value. Unlike beta decay, the observation of neutral current interactions that involve particles requires huge investments in particle accelerators and detectors, such as are available in only a few high-energy physics laboratories in the world (and then only after 1983). This is because Z-bosons behave