bhobba said:Its a predicted by the electroweak theory so your query is - why is the electroweak theory true.
The answer is - we don't know.
That said what is called gauge invariance has shed a lot of light on it, to the point gauge symmetry is considered to lie at the foundation of all the fundamental interactions of the standard model:
http://pauli.uni-muenster.de/tp/fileadmin/lehre/skripte/muenster/Gauge-theories.pdf
The range of a force is a concept from QFT. If the force carrier has zero mass you get an inverse square law like EM and gravity - such is called long range. If they have mass then it falls off quicker than inverse square (if I recall correctly exponentially - but don't hold me to it) and are called short range.
Thanks
Bill
mokeejoe5 said:So we don't know what causes it only that it happens? Why assign a range to it then, surely that's meaningless? I ask because I watched a video on YouTube that claimed its caused by bosons inside neutrinos ,when they get within a certain range, interacting with quarks in hadrons, and I was pretty sure that wasn't the case.
The weak interaction is one of the four fundamental forces in nature, along with gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong nuclear force. It is responsible for the radioactive decay of subatomic particles and plays a crucial role in the processes that occur within the nuclei of atoms.
The weak interaction is caused by the exchange of particles called W and Z bosons between particles that have weak charges, such as quarks and leptons. The W boson carries a positive or negative charge, while the Z boson has no charge.
The weak interaction affects matter by causing particles to change into other particles through radioactive decay. It also plays a role in the fusion reactions that power the sun and other stars, and in the processes that occur during the early stages of the universe's formation.
The range of the weak interaction is very short, only about 10^-18 meters. This is much smaller than the range of the other fundamental forces, which can extend over much larger distances. This short range is due to the large mass of the W and Z bosons that mediate the weak interaction.
The weak interaction is related to the other fundamental forces through the theory of electroweak unification. This theory shows that the weak interaction and electromagnetism were once unified as a single force at high energies, and they became separate forces as the universe cooled and expanded. The strong nuclear force is also believed to have been unified with the electroweak force at even higher energies.