MHV amplitudes MHV amplitudes In theoretical particle physics, maximally helicity violating amplitudes are amplitudes with n external gauge bosons, where n–2 gauge bosons have a particular helicity and the other two have the opposite helicity. These amplitudes are called MHV amplitudes, because at tree level, they violate helicity conservation to the maximum extent possible. The tree amplitudes in which all gauge bosons have the same helicity or all but one have the same helicity vanish. MHV amplitudes may be calculated very efficiently by means of the Parke–Taylor formula. Although developed for pure gluon scattering, extensions exist for massive particles, scalars (the Higgs)
W and Z bosons Their electroweak theory postulated not only the W bosons necessary to explain beta decay, but also a new Z boson that had never been observed. The fact that the W and Z bosons have mass while photons are massless was a major obstacle in developing electroweak theory. These particles are accurately described by an SU(2) gauge theory, but the bosons in a gauge theory must be massless. As a case in point, the photon is massless because electromagnetism is described by a U(1) gauge theory. Some mechanism is required to break the SU(2) symmetry, giving mass to the W and