TERMIUM Plus^®

Record 1,  Textual support,  English

Record number: 1, Textual support number: 1 CONT

Weak interactions are responsible for the fact that all the more massive quarks and leptons decay to produce lighter quarks and leptons. When a particle decays, it disappears and in its place two or more particles appear. The sum of the masses of the produced particles is always less than the mass of the original particle. This is why stable matter around us contains only electrons and the lightest two quarks (up and down.) When a quark or lepton changes type (i.e. a muon changing to an electron) it is said to change flavor. All flavor changes are due to the weak interaction. The carrier particles of the weak intereactions are the W+, W-, and the Z bosons. The W's are electrically charged and the Z is neutral. A very interesting aspect of the Standard Model is that electromagnetic interactions and weak intereactions are combined into a unified interaction called electroweak.  1, record 1, English, - W%2D%20boson

Record 1,  Textual support,  French

Record number: 1, Textual support number: 1 CONT

L'une des conséquences de cette théorie (unifiant les forces magnétique et nucléaire faible) est que les médiateurs de l'interaction faible sont trois particules: les bosons intermédiaires W+, W- et Zo, qui jouent le même rôle que le photon dans l'interaction électromagnétique. Ces trois nouvelles particules devaient avoir une masse de l'ordre 100 GeV, soit cent fois celle du proton; elles ont été découvertes en 1983 grâce au synchrotron à protons de 400 GeV du CERN.  1, record 1, French, - boson%20interm%C3%A9diaire%20W%2D

Record 1,  Textual support,  Spanish