Fundamental Forces: Weak Nuclear Force

La Weak Nuclear Force it is one of the four fundamental forces of physics through which particles interact with each other, along with a strong force, gravity and electromagnetism, this Weak Nuclear Force has a much weaker intensity. Learn more about this interesting topic here!

The Weak Nuclear Force

The weak force is one of the four Fundamental Forces of Nature that govern all matter in the universe, the other three are gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong force, while the other forces hold things together, the weak force plays a larger role in things falling apart or falling apart .

The weak force, or weak interaction, is much stronger than gravity, but is only safe for very short distances, acts at the subatomic level, and plays a crucial role in nurturing stars and creating elements, as well as being responsible for much of the natural radiation present in the universe.

Italian physicist Enrico Fermi thought about a hypothesis in 1933 to manifest beta decay, which is the process by which a neutron in a nucleus turns into a proton and ejects an electron, often called a beta particle in this context .

He defined a new type of force, the so-called weak interaction, which was responsible for the decay and whose fundamental process was to transform a neutron into a proton, an electron and a neutrino, which was later determined to be an anti-neutrino, Giulio Maltese wrote. , an Italian historian of physics, in particles of man.

According to Maltese, Fermi initially stated that this implied what resembles a zero distance or force by which the two particles would have to be in contact for the force to proceed, since then it has been confirmed that the weak force is an attractive force that works in a fairly short range of at least 0.1 percent of the diameter of a proton.

Properties

La Weak Nuclear Force It has a series of properties which we mention below, the weak force is different from the other forces:

Types of Interactions

There are two types of weak interaction that are called vertices, the first type is called "charged current interaction" because it is mediated by particles that carry an electrical charge, it is responsible for the phenomenon of beta decay.

The second type is called "neutral current interaction" because it is mediated by a neutral particle, it is responsible for the deflection of neutrinos, the two types of interaction follow different selection rules.

Charged Current Interaction

In a charged current type of interaction, a charged lepton (such as an electron or a muon, which has a charge of -1) can absorb a W+ boson, meaning a particle with a charge of +1 and from that mode become a corresponding neutrino with a charge of 0 where the type of neutrino, ie electron, muon or tau is the same as the type of lepton in the interaction.

Similarly, a type of down quark with a charge of – ¹ / ₃  can be converted into an up-type quark, with a charge of + ² / ₃ ), by issuing a W^-  boson or absorbing a W⁺   Boson More precisely, the down-type quark becomes a quantum superposition of up-type quarks: that is, it has a chance of becoming one of the three up-type quarks, with the probabilities given in the matrix tables.

In contrast, an upstream quark can emit a W⁺
boson, or absorb a W^- boson, and thus becomes a down-type quark.

The W boson is unstable, so it will decay quickly, with a very short lifetime, the decay of a W boson to other products can happen, with different probabilities.

In the so-called beta decay of a neutron, a down quark inside the neutron expresses an implicit W^- boson and therefore transforms into an up quark, transforming the neutron into a proton.

Due to the energy involved in the process, that is, the difference in mass between the down quark and the up quark, the W^- the boson can only become an electron and an electron antineutrino.

Neutral Current Interaction

In neutral current interactions, a quark or lepton (for example, an electron or a muon) emits or absorbs a neutral Z boson, such as the W^± bosons, the boson also decays rapidly.

Unlike the charged current interaction, whose selection rules are strictly limited by chirality, electric charge, or weak isospin, the neutral current Z⁰ the interaction can cause two fermions in the standard model to deviate: particles and antiparticles of any electric charge, and left and right chirality, although the strength of the interaction differs.

symmetry violation

Symmetry breaking is a phenomenon in which small upheavals proceeding on a system passing through a critical point conclude the fate of the system by establishing which branches are taken, for an external assistant, unaware of the upheavals, the choice will arise unfairly.

This process is called symmetry violation, because such transitions generally transfer the system from a symmetric but disordered state under one or more specific conditions, disturbances in symmetry are thought to play an important role in the patterns.

With direct symmetry breaking, the current equations of the system are stationary, but the system is not due to the basis of the system not being invariant, such symmetry breaking is parameterized using the order parameter, a special case of this type of symmetry dissolution is dynamic symmetry breaking.

Symmetry failure can cover any of the following scenarios:

• Violation of the exact symmetry underlying the laws of physics through the random formation of some structure.
• A situation in physics where the minimum energy state has less symmetry than the system itself.
• Situations in which the real state of the system does not reflect the basic symmetries of the dynamics, since the clearly symmetrical state is unstable and stability is achieved due to local asymmetry.
• Situations in which the equation of a theory can have certain symmetries, but its solutions do not, because the symmetries are "hidden".

One of the first cases of broken symmetry discussed in the physical literature concerns the shape taken by a uniform rotating body of an incompressible fluid in gravitational and hydrostatic equilibrium.

Both Jacobi and Liouville agreed in 1834 that a three-axis ellipsoid was an equilibrium solution to this problem, when the kinetic energy compared to the gravitational energy of a rotating body exceeded a certain critical value.

The axial symmetry represented by the spheroids is broken at this branch point, moreover, above this branch point and for constant angular momentum, the solutions that minimize the kinetic energy are axially non-symmetric Jacobi ellipsoids instead of spheroids of Maclaurin.

Atomic nuclei, for example, are made up of protons and neutrons, and we also know that all subatomic particles are not immutable objects, but rather manage to transform each other, essentially as a result of weak nuclear interactions.

For example, the neutron, which has zero electric charge, can decay into a proton and an electron of equal and opposite charges, plus a new particle of zero charge, an antineutrino, and similarly, the antineutron can decay into a antiproton, a positron and a neutrino.

Electroweak Theory or Model

The weak force acts only across distances smaller than the atomic nucleus, while the electromagnetic force can extend over large distances, as seen in the light of Stars that reach entire galaxies, fading only with the square of the distance.

Furthermore, comparison of the strength of the fundamental interactions between two protons, for example, reveals that the weak force is about 10 million times weaker than the electromagnetic force, yet one of the major discoveries of the XNUMXth century has been that these two forces are different facets of a single, more fundamental electrical leakage force.

The electroweak theory arose primarily from attempts to produce a self-consistent gauge theory of the weak force, in analogy with quantum electrodynamics, the successful modern theory of the electromagnetic force developed during the 1940s.

There are two basic requirements for the gauge theory of the weak force, first, it must exhibit an underlying mathematical symmetry, called gauge invariance, such that the effects of the force are the same at different points in space and time. Second, the theory should be renormalizable, that is, it should not contain nonphysical infinite quantities.

Everyday Examples of Nuclear Changes

The most obvious example of the Weak Nuclear Force is the binding of protons, which are repulsive in nature due to their positive charge. On a larger scale, this force is responsible for the immense destructive power of nuclear weapons, the release of energy when detonated. a nuclear weapon is due to strong nuclear forces.

It is important to note that in the same way they are used in nuclear energy vegetations to create heat, this in order to form energy, such as electricity, a Weak Nuclear Force It manages to convert a neutron into a proton and a proton into a neutron, these forces originate in many resistances, such as radioactive decay, burning of the sun, radiocarbon dating, etc.

• A fission reaction in a nuclear power plant provides enough energy to power large cities.
• The fusion reaction in the sun provides our planet with all the energy it needs for living organisms to survive.
• A runaway fission reaction provides the destructive force of a nuclear bomb.