An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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Any of a class of particles (such as the → photon, → pion, or → alpha particle) that have zero or integral → spin and do not obey the → Pauli exclusion principle. The energy distribution of bosons is described by → Bose-Einstein statistics. See also: → gauge boson, → Higgs boson, → W boson, → Z boson, → intermediate boson.

Boson, in honor of the Indian-American physicist Satyendra Nath Bose (1894-1974).

A class of elementary particles that includes the gluon, photon, W⁺, W^-, and Z⁰ particles, each having an integral spin.

→ gauge; → boson.

A hypothetical, neutral → elementary particle which plays a key role in the → standard model of → particle physics. This massive particle, whose mass is estimated to be about 125 GeV (→ giga → electron-volts) and a zero → spin, carries the → Higgs field. In the current version of the → electroweak theory, → W boson and → Z boson and all the fundamental constituents (→ quarks and → leptons) get their masses by interacting with the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is produced by the fusion of two → gluons via a triangular loop of virtual top quarks. In the decay process, a loop of virtual top quarks allows the Higgs boson to decay into two photons. The particle's discovery was announced by → CERN in July 2012.

Named after the Scottish physicist Peter Ware Higgs (1929-), one of the researchers who theorized the existence of this particle in 1964. In fact three groups of physicists almost simultaneously published their results on this subject: François Englert and Robert Brout in August 1964; Peter Higgs in October 1964; and Gerald Guralnik, Carl Hagen, and Tom Kibble in November 1964; → boson.

A hypothetical → elementary particle that mediates the → weak interaction, carrying its effect from one particle to another as the photon does for electromagnetic interactions. First introduced in 1961 by Sheldon Glashow.

→ intermediate; → boson.

In nuclear physics, a → boson with the spin quantum number equal to 1.

→ vector; → boson.

A → boson particle that, along with → Z boson, mediates the → weak force in particle interactions. Two kinds of W bosons exist, the W⁺ and its antiparticle W^-. With a mass of 80.4 GeV/c², the W boson is almost 100 times as massive as the → proton.

W for → weak; → boson.

An electrically neutral subatomic particle that along with → W boson mediates the → weak nuclear force. Like the photon, the Z boson is its own antiparticle.

→ boson.