Electroweak interaction

In <a href="/facts/Particle_physics/YgIuyj2t">particle physics</a>, the electroweak interaction or electroweak force is the <a href="/facts/Unified_field_theory/MMxqcM14">unified description</a> of two of the <a href="/facts/Fundamental_interaction/WrFEJaFl">fundamental interactions</a> of nature: <a href="/facts/Electromagnetism/oAkmALHT">electromagnetism (electromagnetic interaction)</a> and the <a href="/facts/Weak_interaction/f6upmKMs">weak interaction</a>. Although these two forces appear very different at everyday low energies, the theory models them as two different aspects of the same force. Above the <a href="/facts/Electroweak_scale/zNj1DASt">unification energy</a>, on the order of 246 <a href="/facts/GeV/YMT1fqX9">GeV</a>, they would merge into a single force. Thus, if the temperature is high enough – approximately 1015 <a href="/facts/Kelvin/E3trzC4C">K</a> – then the electromagnetic force and weak force merge into a combined electroweak force.
During the <a href="/facts/Quark_epoch/qWGR0WC9">quark epoch</a> (shortly after the <a href="/facts/Big_Bang/I5T1vTnv">Big Bang</a>), the electroweak force split into the electromagnetic and <a href="/facts/Weak_force/f6upmKMs">weak force</a>. It is thought that the required temperature of 1015 K has <a href="/facts/Orders_of_magnitude_(temperature)/ADXGAk8e">not been seen widely throughout the universe</a> since before the quark epoch, and currently the highest human-made temperature in thermal equilibrium is around 5.5×1012 K (from the <a href="/facts/Large_Hadron_Collider/XWJCFSqT">Large Hadron Collider</a>).
<a href="/facts/Sheldon_Glashow/KNS7qjog">Sheldon Glashow</a>, <a href="/facts/Abdus_Salam/M4GNh8dE">Abdus Salam</a>, and <a href="/facts/Steven_Weinberg/G61D6kJw">Steven Weinberg</a> were awarded the 1979 <a href="/facts/Nobel_Prize_in_Physics/o6w1nCbr">Nobel Prize in Physics</a> for their contributions to the unification of the weak and electromagnetic interaction between <a href="/facts/Elementary_particle/CTFDM97U">elementary particles</a>, known as the Weinberg–Salam theory. The existence of the electroweak interactions was experimentally established in two stages, the first being the discovery of <a href="/facts/Neutral_current/eXCI2ldx">neutral currents</a> in neutrino scattering by the <a href="/facts/Gargamelle/YzC4UGPB">Gargamelle</a> collaboration in 1973, and the second in 1983 by the <a href="/facts/UA1/1RX0Qp6F">UA1</a> and the <a href="/facts/UA2/mwrWwIeB">UA2</a> collaborations that involved the discovery of the <a href="/facts/W_and_Z_bosons/gAncY5XV">W and Z</a> <a href="/facts/Gauge_boson/TEEpAwxJ">gauge bosons</a> in proton–antiproton collisions at the converted <a href="/facts/Super_Proton_Synchrotron/3qTKCxnR">Super Proton Synchrotron</a>. In 1999, <a href="/facts/Gerardus_%2527t_Hooft/zNLVwVth">Gerardus 't Hooft</a> and <a href="/facts/Martinus_Veltman/9QlScWxF">Martinus Veltman</a> were awarded the Nobel prize for showing that the electroweak theory is <a href="/facts/Renormalizable/B4PdTB4o">renormalizable</a>.

Electroweak interaction open-in-new

Electroweak interaction