Vector boson Vector boson In particle physics, a vector boson is a boson with the spin equal to 1. The vector bosons regarded as elementary particles in the Standard Model are the gauge bosons, the force carriers of fundamental interactions: the photon of electromagnetism, the W and Z bosons of the weak interaction, and the gluons of the strong interaction. Some composite particles are vector bosons, for instance any vector meson (quark and antiquark). During the 1970s and 1980s, intermediate vector bosons—vector bosons of "intermediate" mass (a mass between the two of the vector mesons)—drew much attention in particle physics. The Z
Technicolor (physics) "M", and the coupling of quarks and leptons to the new particles must be suppressed relative to their coupling to the gauge bosons. This is the case with technicolor, so long as the lightest technivector mesons, "ρ" and "a", are heavier than 200–300 GeV. The "S"-parameter is sensitive to all new physics at the TeV scale, while "T" is a measure of weak-isospin breaking effects. The "U"-parameter is generally not useful; most new-physics theories, including technicolor theories, give negligible contributions to it. The "S" and "T"-parameters are determined by global fit to experimental data including "Z"-pole data from LEP at