particle physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of Elementary particle, fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the s ...

, a vector boson is a

boson In particle physics, a boson ( ) is a subatomic particle whose spin quantum number has an integer value (0, 1, 2, ...). Bosons form one of the two fundamental classes of subatomic particle, the other being fermions, which have half odd-intege ...

whose

spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

equals one. Vector bosons that are also

elementary particle In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a subatomic particle that is not composed of other particles. The Standard Model presently recognizes seventeen distinct particles—twelve fermions and five bosons. As a c ...

s are

gauge boson In particle physics, a gauge boson is a bosonic elementary particle that acts as the force carrier for elementary fermions. Elementary particles whose interactions are described by a gauge theory interact with each other by the exchange of gauge ...

s, the

force carrier In quantum field theory, a force carrier is a type of particle that gives rise to forces between other particles. They serve as the quanta of a particular kind of physical field. Force carriers are also known as messenger particles, intermedia ...

s of

fundamental interaction In physics, the fundamental interactions or fundamental forces are interactions in nature that appear not to be reducible to more basic interactions. There are four fundamental interactions known to exist: * gravity * electromagnetism * weak int ...

s. Some

composite particle This is a list of known and hypothesized microscopic particles in particle physics, condensed matter physics and cosmology. Standard Model elementary particles Elementary particles are particles with no measurable internal structure; that is, ...

s are vector bosons, for instance any

vector meson In high energy physics, a vector meson is a meson with total spin 1 and odd parity (usually noted as ). Vector mesons have been seen in experiments since the 1960s, and are well known for their spectroscopic pattern of masses. The vector mes ...

(

quark A quark () is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nucleus, atomic nuclei ...

and

antiquark A quark () is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei. All commonly ...

). During the 1970s and 1980s, intermediate vector bosons (the W and Z bosons, which mediate the weak interaction) drew much attention in

. A pseudovector boson is a vector boson that has even parity, whereas "regular" vector bosons have odd parity. There are no fundamental pseudovector bosons, but there are pseudovector mesons.

In relation to the Higgs boson

The W and Z particles interact with the Higgs boson as shown in the

Feynman diagram In theoretical physics, a Feynman diagram is a pictorial representation of the mathematical expressions describing the behavior and interaction of subatomic particles. The scheme is named after American physicist Richard Feynman, who introduced ...

Explanation

The name ''vector boson'' arises from

quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines Field theory (physics), field theory and the principle of relativity with ideas behind quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct phy ...

. The

component Component may refer to: In engineering, science, and technology Generic systems *System components, an entity with discrete structure, such as an assembly or software module, within a system considered at a particular level of analysis * Lumped e ...

of such a particle's spin along any axis has the three

eigenvalue In linear algebra, an eigenvector ( ) or characteristic vector is a vector that has its direction unchanged (or reversed) by a given linear transformation. More precisely, an eigenvector \mathbf v of a linear transformation T is scaled by a ...

s −, 0, and + (where is the

reduced Planck constant The Planck constant, or Planck's constant, denoted by h, is a fundamental physical constant of foundational importance in quantum mechanics: a photon's energy is equal to its frequency multiplied by the Planck constant, and the wavelength of a ...

), meaning that any measurement of its spin can only yield one of these values. (This is true for massive vector bosons; the situation differs for

massless particle In particle physics, a massless particle is an elementary particle whose invariant mass is zero. At present the only confirmed massless particle is the photon. Other particles and quasiparticles Standard Model gauge bosons The photon (carrier of ...

s such as the photon, for reasons beyond the scope of this article. See ''

Wigner's classification In mathematics and theoretical physics, Wigner's classification is a classification of the nonnegative ~ (~E \ge 0~)~ energy irreducible unitary representations of the Poincaré group which have either finite or zero mass eigenvalues. (These u ...

''.) The space of spin

states State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

therefore is a discrete

degree of freedom In many scientific fields, the degrees of freedom of a system is the number of parameters of the system that may vary independently. For example, a point in the plane has two degrees of freedom for translation: its two coordinates; a non-infinites ...

consisting of three states, the same as the number of components of a

vector Vector most often refers to: * Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction * Disease vector, an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematics a ...

in three-dimensional space.

Quantum superposition Quantum superposition is a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics that states that linear combinations of solutions to the Schrödinger equation are also solutions of the Schrödinger equation. This follows from the fact that the Schrödi ...

s of these states can be taken such that they transform under rotations just like the spatial components of a rotating vector (the so-called 3 representation of SU(2)). If the vector boson is taken to be the

quantum In physics, a quantum (: quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a property can be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This me ...

of a field, the field is a

vector field In vector calculus and physics, a vector field is an assignment of a vector to each point in a space, most commonly Euclidean space \mathbb^n. A vector field on a plane can be visualized as a collection of arrows with given magnitudes and dire ...

, hence the name. The ''boson'' part of the name arises from the spin-statistics relation, which requires that all integer spin particles be bosons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vector Boson Bosons Mesons Gauge theories Particle physics

In relation to the Higgs boson

Explanation

See also

References