Gauge boson certain atoms. The Standard Model of particle physics recognizes four kinds of gauge bosons: photons, which carry the electromagnetic interaction; W and Z bosons, which carry the weak interaction; and gluons, which carry the strong interaction. Isolated gluons do not occur because they are color-charged and subject to color confinement. In a quantized gauge theory, gauge bosons are quanta of the gauge fields. Consequently, there are as many gauge bosons as there are generators of the gauge field. In quantum electrodynamics, the gauge group is "U"(1); in this simple case, there is only one gauge boson. In quantum chromodynamics, the
W′ and Z′ bosons W′ and Z′ bosons In particle physics, W′ and Z′ bosons (or W-prime and Z-prime bosons) refer to hypothetical gauge bosons that arise from extensions of the electroweak symmetry of the Standard Model. They are named in analogy with the Standard Model W and Z bosons. W′ bosons often arise in models with an extra SU(2) gauge group. is spontaneously broken to the diagonal subgroup SU(2) which corresponds to the electroweak SU(2). More generally, we might have "n" copies of SU(2), which are then broken down to a diagonal SU(2). This gives rise to "n"−1 W′, W′ and Z′ bosons.