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The forces of nature
There are four fundamental forces of nature. The two that we experience in our everyday lives: gravitational force and the electro-magnetic force, and the two that occur inside the nucleus of atoms: the strong force and the weak force.
The table below shows some of the properties of the four forces.
Exchange particles
All four of the fundamental forces involve the exchange of a particle. These exchange particles belong to a group of particles known as bosons. Bosons have a whole number value of the quantum quantity called spin i.e. spin = 0, 1, 2 ... Exchange particles are virtual particles which means that they only exist during the force interaction.
The table shows some of the properties of the exchange particles for the strong, weak and electro-magnetic forces.
The concept of the exchange particle is often described using the analogy of two people on boats who throw a ball between them which creates a force that moves them apart, as shown in the diagram below.
Or using the analogy of two basket players on ice as shown in the gif below.
The diagram below shows two examples of force interactions. The left diagram shows a neutron decaying into a proton through the weak force with the W- virtual exchange particle. The right diagram shows an electron and a positron colliding either through the weak force with a Z virtual exchange particle or through the electromagnetic force with a virtual photon.
Bosons also include mesons and the Higgs boson.
Mesons
Mesons are made of of two quarks. One of the quarks must be an antiquark.
The Higgs boson
The Higgs boson
The standard model explains mass by proposing that it is due to a new field called the Higgs field, named after Peter Higgs who suggested its possibility in 1964. Without the Higgs field fundamental particles would have no mass. Mass is the effect of the interaction between particles and the Higgs field. The Higgs field is responsible for the production of Higgs bosons.
A typical way to explain the Higgs boson is the analogy of the cocktail party shown in the image below.
Watch the video clip below where the journalist uses the analogy of a muddy football pitch to explain the Higgs boson and then discusses with Peter Higgs himself what he thinks about the cocktail party analogy.
Higgs_boson.mp4In his own words.
In his own words.
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