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

[Qconfused]

need help, I'm reading that W bosons are 80 GeV, but they are components of protons of ~1 GEV. Makes no sense. Is the 80 GeV the mass/energy of the particle if it is outside the proton? If so what is the mass/energy as a transfer particle within the proton. If you subtract the mass of the quarks from 1GeV is the remaining energy the sum of the energy of the bosons?

 

[jtbell]

W bosons are not components of protons. Are you sure you're not confusing them with quarks?

 

[malawi_glenn]

He might think that by looking at pictures of beta decay, where a VIRTUAL W-boson carries the weak force and couples it between an electron and a neutrino.

He might think that the W-boson preexists as a component of the proton. But that is not how it is really. The W boson is for the first a virtual particle, so it does not satisfy E^2 = p^2 +m^2, secondly energy conservation CAN be violated, but only for a short time. We have that E\dot t > \hbar/2, so it is ok for the W boson to just come from "nowere" to "do its job" by chaning the proton to a neutron and creating an electron and a neutrino.

 

[Qconfused]

Thank you malawi, you hit my lapse on several fronts. I was reading about neutron decay to proton with ejection of W- and got to thinking that W- was the boson (gluon) exchange particle. total confusion.