Particle physics strong, weak, and electromagnetic fundamental interactions, using mediating gauge bosons. The species of gauge bosons are eight gluons, , and bosons, and the photon. The Standard Model also contains 24 fundamental fermions (12 particles and their associated anti-particles), which are the constituents of all matter. Finally, the Standard Model also predicted the existence of a type of boson known as the Higgs boson. Early in the morning on 4 July 2012, physicists with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN announced they had found a new particle that behaves similarly to what is expected from the Higgs boson. The world's major
Weak interaction distances, less than the diameter of a proton. It is one of the four known fundamental interactions of nature, alongside the strong interaction, electromagnetism, and gravitation. The Standard Model of particle physics provides a uniform framework for understanding the electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions. An interaction occurs when two particles, typically but not necessarily half-integer spin fermions, exchange integer-spin, force-carrying bosons. The fermions involved in such exchanges can be either elementary (e.g. electrons or quarks) or composite (e.g. protons or neutrons), although at the deepest levels, all weak interactions ultimately are between elementary particles. In the case of the weak