- #1
Caramon
- 133
- 5
Hello,
Just to give a little background here, I am entering into a Bsc (Hons) Physics major next year at the University of Saskatchewan and I have just been reading some books and learning about the standard model over the summer and I had a quick question. Most recently I just finished 'Beyond Einstein' by Michio Kaku and String theory is way over my head at this point because I just don't understand all of the implications of the "beautiful and elegant symmetry" he keeps referring to, but other than that it was a great background for the history of this whole field and some introduction into the standard model. I just finished 'The Quantum Frontier' by Don Lincoln as well and here is a problem arose for me.
Regarding the Weak Force and W and Z bosons:
It is talking about W boson and Z boson decay modes and it shows that Z bosons decay into either a quark + antiquark, neutrino + antineutrino, electron + positron (Is this an antielectron? Since electrons are negative it's a negative-negative so it becomes a positron? The naming is weird to me on this one, why isn't it called an antielectron?), muon + antimuon or tau + antitau. I'm fine with this as it makes sense that it would be decaying in an attempt to get to it's lowest energy state by emitting a certain particle and it's antiparticle. (tell me if I'm off base here).
Where the trouble comes in for me is with the W decay modes, it says that it can either decay into quark + antiquark, electron + neutrino, muon + neutrino, or tau + neutrino. Why is it that Z bosons decay into a quark or lepton with their respective antiparticle while in a W boson it is only in quarks that there is an antiparticle produced and for all leptons it seems to be a combination between whatever is left... why would a W boson decay into an electron + neutrino while everything else is showing that it will decay into a certain quark or lepton and that certain particles respective antiparticle.
Hopefully I clearly explained myself and maybe I'm just just totally waaay off base here and I need to actually learn this in a class, but if someone would be kind enough to explain this briefly for me that would be great.
-Sam Reid
Sorry for any run of sentences or grammatical errors, I typed this up in a rush.
Just to give a little background here, I am entering into a Bsc (Hons) Physics major next year at the University of Saskatchewan and I have just been reading some books and learning about the standard model over the summer and I had a quick question. Most recently I just finished 'Beyond Einstein' by Michio Kaku and String theory is way over my head at this point because I just don't understand all of the implications of the "beautiful and elegant symmetry" he keeps referring to, but other than that it was a great background for the history of this whole field and some introduction into the standard model. I just finished 'The Quantum Frontier' by Don Lincoln as well and here is a problem arose for me.
Regarding the Weak Force and W and Z bosons:
It is talking about W boson and Z boson decay modes and it shows that Z bosons decay into either a quark + antiquark, neutrino + antineutrino, electron + positron (Is this an antielectron? Since electrons are negative it's a negative-negative so it becomes a positron? The naming is weird to me on this one, why isn't it called an antielectron?), muon + antimuon or tau + antitau. I'm fine with this as it makes sense that it would be decaying in an attempt to get to it's lowest energy state by emitting a certain particle and it's antiparticle. (tell me if I'm off base here).
Where the trouble comes in for me is with the W decay modes, it says that it can either decay into quark + antiquark, electron + neutrino, muon + neutrino, or tau + neutrino. Why is it that Z bosons decay into a quark or lepton with their respective antiparticle while in a W boson it is only in quarks that there is an antiparticle produced and for all leptons it seems to be a combination between whatever is left... why would a W boson decay into an electron + neutrino while everything else is showing that it will decay into a certain quark or lepton and that certain particles respective antiparticle.
Hopefully I clearly explained myself and maybe I'm just just totally waaay off base here and I need to actually learn this in a class, but if someone would be kind enough to explain this briefly for me that would be great.
-Sam Reid
Sorry for any run of sentences or grammatical errors, I typed this up in a rush.