Tag Archive for 'Weak force'

CMS candidate collision event for a W boson decaying into a muon (red line) and a neutrino that escapes detection (pink arrow). Image credit: CMS / CERN.

CERN Physicists Pin Down W Boson Mass with Unprecedented Precision

Apr 13, 2026 by News Staff

Using data from over one billion proton-colliding events collected at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), physicists have measured the mass of the W...

A three-vector-boson event recorded by ATLAS, with one W boson decaying to an electron and a neutrino, one W boson decaying to a muon and a neutrino, and a Z boson decaying to two muons; muons are shown by red lines, the electron by a green line, and ‘missing energy’ from the neutrino by a dashed white line. Image credit: ATLAS / CERN.

CERN Physicists Observe Production of Weak Boson Triplets

Feb 27, 2025 by News Staff

Physicists with the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider have announced the first observation of VVZ production — a rare combination...

View of an ATLAS collision event in which a candidate W boson decays into a muon and a neutrino; the reconstructed tracks of the charged particles in the inner part of the ATLAS detector are shown as orange lines; the energy deposits in the detector’s calorimeters are shown as yellow boxes; the identified muon is shown as a red line; the missing transverse momentum associated with the neutrino is shown as a green dashed line. Image credit: ATLAS / CERN.

CERN Physicists Measure Width of W Boson

Apr 11, 2024 by News Staff

Physicists from the ATLAS Collaboration have measured the width of the W boson — the electrically charged carrier of the weak force — at CERN’s...

Physicists Precisely Measure Mass of W Boson

Apr 11, 2022 by News Staff

Physicists from the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) Collaboration have determined the mass of the W boson, a mediator of the weak force between elementary...

A 2018 ATLAS event display consistent with the production of a pair of W bosons from two photons, where the W bosons decay into a muon and an electron (visible in the detector) and neutrinos (not detected). The muon path (red line) and electron path (yellow line) are shown. The electron deposits its energy in the electromagnetic calorimeter (yellow blocks). The many particles reconstructed in the Inner Detector are shown in orange. Top left corner shows that these particles do not originate from the same interaction and are thus attributed to additional proton-proton interactions. Image credit: ATLAS Collaboration / CERN.

Photon Collisions Produce Pairs of Weak-Force Carriers

Aug 11, 2020 by News Staff

Physicists from the ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider have observed production of W bosons, elementary particles...

Blyth et al analyzed the gamma rays emitted during the NPDGamma Experiment and found parity-violating asymmetry, which is a specific change in behavior in the force between a neutron and a proton. They measured a 30 parts per billion preference for gamma rays to be emitted antiparallel to the neutron spin when neutrons are captured by protons in liquid hydrogen. After observing that more gammas go down than up, the experiment resolved for the first time a mirror-asymmetric component or handedness of the weak force. Image credit: Andy Sproles / Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy.

Experimental Physicists Measure Weak Force between Protons and Neutrons in Atom’s Nucleus

Dec 27, 2018 by News Staff

Physicists from the NPDGamma Experiment at the DoE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have measured the weak interaction between protons and neutrons...