Questions About W Bosons: Speed, Isolation & Existence

Thinkor · Mar 27, 2011

Has the speed of W (or Z) bosons ever been measured?
I presume not, because I have read they exist for only about 10^-25 seconds.

So, how is it known that they are not charged particles that move at the speed of light, with energy, but no mass, like photons?

Have they ever been isolated?

How is it known that they exist?

mathman · Mar 27, 2011

http://pdg.lbl.gov/

Look through the above. It contains lots of information about W and Z particles. Note that the W particles are charged.

Bill_K · Mar 28, 2011

The Z boson is uncharged, but we know its mass is about 90 GeV. Why? Because it takes a minimum of 90 GeV energy to make one!

jtbell · Mar 28, 2011

Thinkor said:

Have they ever been isolated?

How is it known that they exist?

Nobel Prize in Physics 1984

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1984/rubbia-lecture.pdf (PDF)

Questions About W Bosons: Speed, Isolation & Existence

Discussion

Graduate Is the massless survivor of an SMG gapped phase genuinely chiral?

High School Can virtual particles turn into real particles? (news about new study)

Graduate Running lattice QCD on Apple Silicon with native Metal GPU

Graduate “Appropriate Modeling Approach for Thin Plasma Layers”

Graduate Duality between Feynman graphs

Undergrad Weak Interaction Hamiltonian V-A Structure Derivation

Graduate Determining MDA for the Dual Label Counting method with the LSC

Undergrad Unique Particle Accelerator Experiment ideas

Undergrad Progress In Calculating The HLbL Contribution To Muon g-2

Graduate Mass measurement in a Penning trap

Insights Revisiting the Velocity-Time Function

Insights Remote Operated Gate Control System

Insights AI Enriched Problem Solving

Insights Thinking Outside The Box Versus Knowing What’s In The Box

Insights Why Entangled Photon-Polarization Qubits Violate Bell’s Inequality

Insights Quantum Entanglement is a Kinematic Fact, not a Dynamical Effect

Questions About W Bosons: Speed, Isolation & Existence

Discussion

Similar threads

Undergrad How Does Beta Decay Relate to the Role of W Bosons in Weak Nuclear Force?

Graduate W+/W- bosons ratio in proton-proton collision

High School Are W Bosons Truly Massive Particles or Just an Effect of Energy Equivalence?

Graduate Charge of the W bosons in the Higgs Mechanism

Graduate Confused About W Bosons: Mass/Energy Inside and Outside Proton?

Graduate Are the W bosons charged before symmetry breaking?

Momentum of W Bosons After Collision in Particle Physics Lab

Graduate Is decay of Z or W bosons exothermic?

Undergrad Some questions about Cosmic Inflation

Undergrad Some questions about Cosmic Microwave Background radiation