The discussion revolves around the weak interaction between electrons, particularly in the context of how it relates to electrostatic forces and the electroweak interaction. Participants explore the implications of weak force interactions in various scenarios, including atomic energy levels and particle exchanges.
Participants generally agree on the theoretical framework of weak interactions but express differing views on the practical implications and contributions of these interactions in various contexts, indicating that the discussion remains unresolved.
Participants highlight limitations regarding the conditions under which weak interactions become relevant, particularly emphasizing temperature dependencies and the negligible impact of weak interactions in most practical scenarios.
Philipsmett said:The two electrons will be repelled by electrostatic force, but they interact with weak force, means that in addition to the electrostatic force between the electrons there will be weak force?
king vitamin said:due to the nature of the electroweak interaction, every electromagnetic interaction necessarily comes with a corresponding weak interaction, since every particle which interacts with a photon must also interact with the weak Z0 boson.
electrons exchange only Z0 bosons or also WE +/- bosons?PeterDonis said:This is true in principle, but leaves out a key point. At temperatures much below the Z0 boson mass (which is temperatures everywhere except inside high-energy experiments like the LHC, or possibly deep inside the cores of very hot stars), the amplitude for weak interaction is negligible compared to the amplitude for electromagnetic interaction. So, for example, if you are talking about the energy levels of electrons in atoms, weak interactions have no measurable impact (and "measurable" here means to eleven or twelve decimal places, accurate enough to see fairly high order QED effects). Similar remarks apply to any electromagnetic phenomenon encountered in daily life.
Philipsmett said:electrons exchange only Z0 bosons or also WE +/- bosons?
Philipsmett said:electrons exchange only Z0 bosons or also WE +/- bosons?
PeterDonis said:If you're talking about contributions to the electrostatic force between charged particles, there will be a Z0 boson exchange Feynman diagram possible (but, as I noted, it will be way too small to make any measurable contribution to the observed force), but no W+ or W- boson exchange diagrams, since that would obviously violate charge conservation. However, there are more complicated Feynman diagrams possible that could involve W+ or W- bosons as intermediates (but the contributions from those would be much smaller even than the Z0 boson exchange contribution).