away. I mean, that shows you that the range of that force is essentially infinite. The weak force , however basically becomes nonexistent on distances much smaller than the size of a proton. So that, you know, to say, "Oh, they're the same," and yet one can reach across the universe and one can't reach out of an atom, well, that's just
over quite a few years actually. But all right, so now let's-- what you said is true. So Weinberg, Glashow, and Salam showed that electromagnetism and the weak force at high energies were the same. There was a problem, however, and the problem is that electromagnetism has an infinite range, And we know that because we can see stars that are millions of light-years
distinction between matter and antimatter. It's only the weak force that shows even the slightest preference. And that slightest preference seems to be, in very, very subtle ways-- it doesn't even mean that more matter is created than antimatter.
In the case of electromagnetism, it's the photon. In the case of the weak force , we call them now the W and Z particles. So the idea is that Higgs and his colleagues came up with is saying, "All right, electroweak force is real.
Since the Higgs field is zero, the weak force particles don't feel mass, and therefore, they can travel at the speed of light, just like the it gave mass to the weak force particles, did not give mass to the photon. So that's what we call electroweak symmetry breaking,
OK, again, what's this got to do with anything? And these are the ones for the weak force , the one that produces that electron neutrino, in terms of three particles involved, but that doesn't matter.
So in this case, we might imagine Maxwell's demon takes the high-energy particles and tries to sort them to the left side of the partition and the low-energy Same is true for the weak force , which produce the W and Z particles, and for the strong force, which created the gluons.
This force works across the universe. This force, the weak force , operates only on the scale of nuclei. That's why we don't see it on human scales.
We've got little hints like this, that there are slight violations of symmetry in nature, but we don't know where they come from. And they only show up in what is known as the weak force . The laws of physics are broken down into sort of four fundamental forces-- gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear force.
thought here is, well, we just proved that that whole idea is stupid, so throw it away. Ridiculous. And that is where these ideas from 1964 came in and saved the day. So how can it be true that the electroweak force is real and electromagnetism and the weak force act so differently? The way that could happen is if these forces were transmitted by a particle moving from one subatomic particle to the other.
electroweak force is real. The way we make it so that there is now an electromagnetic force and a weak force is the force-carrying particle of electromagnetism has no mass. The force-carrying particle of the weak force has a mass." And so what was done is a field was
The way we make it so that there is now an electromagnetic force and a weak force is the force-carrying particle of electromagnetism has no mass. The force-carrying particle of the weak force has a mass." And so what was done is a field was postulated that there was this additional field that was kind of distinct from this electroweak field,
uh, Weinberg and Salam and Glashow said, is at very high energies, the Higgs field is zero. Since the Higgs field is zero, the weak force particles don't feel mass, and therefore, they can travel at the speed of light, just like the photon does, and everything's happy.
OK, again, what's this got to do with anything? the electromagnetic interactions responsible for all the interactions in the biology of your body-- the weak force is actually responsible for the processes
The laws of physics are broken down into sort of four fundamental forces-- gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear force. And every one of them, except for the weak force , seems to not give any concern whatsoever about the distinction between matter and antimatter.
what's called the Higgs field. And I'll get back, get to what that is in a minute, but the Higgs field is important. But it wasn't until 1967, so three years later, that Steven Weinberg and some others actually unified electromagnetism and the weak force . - Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam, and Steven Weinberg successfully unified electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force that showing that at high energies-
And here's the kicker, some particles interact with the field, and some particles don't interact with the field. The ones that interact with the field get mass, and the ones that don't interact with the field don't have mass. And so that's the idea, is that the Higgs field gives the weak force particles mass. However, the photon laughs at the Higgs field, doesn't see it, and it has no mass.