Particles with neutral charges but not affected by the weak or strong force

[Einstein's Cat]

Are there any particles which have a neutral electrical charge and are not affected by the weak or strong nuclear force? Thank you for your time and please excuse me if I'm being very ignorant!

 

[Syndicate]

There's W and Z bosons if I remember correctly

 

[Einstein's Cat]

There's W and Z bosons if I remember correctly

Cheers very much

 

[Vanadium 50]

Syndicate, if you don't know something it is not necessary to reply.

Einstein's Cat, such a particle would be sterile and thus undetectable. You can hypothesize such particles, but you can't experimentally detect them.

 

[mathman]

W particles are charged. W and Z are carriers for weak force.

To answer the original question - dark matter.

 

[Orodruin]

Einstein's Cat, such a particle would be sterile and thus undetectable. You can hypothesize such particles, but you can't experimentally detect them.

I would argue against the last sentence here. You cannot hypothesise anything which cannot be experimentally detected within a scientific framework.

 

[Vanadium 50]

But if I said there were no such particles someone else would quibble, "but what if there were singlets under all gauge groups?" Sometimes you just can't win.

 

[Vanadium 50]

To answer the original question - dark matter.

Of course we don't know for sure, but it is possible - maybe even likely - that DM is charged under the weak interaction.

 

[Dr. Courtney]

Syndicate, if you don't know something it is not necessary to reply.

Einstein's Cat, such a particle would be sterile and thus undetectable. You can hypothesize such particles, but you can't experimentally detect them.

If the particles have mass, they could be detected by their gravitational effects.

 

[Orodruin]

But if I said there were no such particles someone else would quibble, "but what if there were singlets under all gauge groups?" Sometimes you just can't win.

But gauge singlets (effectively right handed neutrinos) may be detectable (a priori) through Yukawa interactions with left-handed neutrinos.

 

[Vanadium 50]

And let the quibbling begin!