Does the electroweak force change quark flavor

[a dull boy]

Dear Physics Forum,

I was thinking about the properties of the combined electroweak force. Does it maintain the
electromagnetic and weak force properties (in an additive fashion), or does it have new properties. If new properties, do we know what they are (well, you may, but I don't!).

Thanks, Mark

 

[VantagePoint72]

I'm not entirely sure what your second sentence means; however, quarks can change flavour in electroweak processes.

 

[mpv_plate]

I was thinking about the properties of the combined electroweak force.

Do you mean the interactions under unbroken electroweak symmetry? They are different: for example photons do not effectively exist (they are not meaningful degrees of freedom), electric charge does not exist. There are other charges though: the weak hypercharge and weak isospin.

Check here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroweak_interaction