Function of W+, W- and Z bosons?

[FeDeX_LaTeX]

Hello;

What are the functions of the W⁺, W^- and Z⁰ bosons? They are responsible for radioactive beta decay, but what do each of these bosons do?

Thanks.

 

[phyzguy]

They are the force carriers of the weak interaction, just as the photon is the force carrier of the electromagnetic interaction. Because they are very massive, the weak interaction is a very short-range force, unlike the electromagnetic interaction, which is a long-range force because the photon is massless.

 

[FeDeX_LaTeX]

Okay. So the W+, W- and Z0 are all attracted to each other, then? Like in an atom?

 

[Agent M27]

I checked it out on hyperphysics and it gave a Feynman diagram which depicted a down quark is traveling along it splits into an up quark and a +W which then decays into an electron and electron neutrino. The description said this is what happens during beta decay but I always thought beta decay was dealing with electrons and alpha decay dealing with nucleons. So what is beta decay? Also what exactly are these bosons transmitting? Is it just a means of describing how a particle will start at A and arrive at B as our observations have shown? Sorry to hijack your thread but I think this is pertinant to your original post.

Joe

 

[FeDeX_LaTeX]

Hi;

I would like to know too. :)

Where is the picture you were talking about?

 

[Agent M27]

Here is the link to the http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/qrkdec.html#c1"page showing the various ways in which a quark (up, down, charmed) will decay into a W⁺ W^- Z⁰. Hopefully someone can shed light on beta decay.

Joe

Edit: Here is a pretty in depth description of http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/nuclear/beta.html#c2". That straightens things out for me a bit.

 

[phyzguy]

At the quark level, beta decay is as you described it, with a d quark decaying into a u quark, an electron, and an electron anti-neutrino. Converting the d quark into a u quark converts the neutron that the d quark is part of into a proton. This causes the nucleus that the neutron is into emit an electron (and it's associated neutrino) and increase in atomic number by 1. Note that even free neutrons decay via this path with a half life of about 10-15 minutes.