Chapter 33: Q31CQ (page 1211)
If the Higgs boson is discovered and found to have mass, will it be considered the ultimate carrier of the weak force? Explain your response.
It will not because the Higgs' role in the Standard model is to provide mass to other particles via the Higgs mechanism, not to carry the weak force.
Over 30 million students worldwide already upgrade their learning with Vaia!
All the tools & learning materials you need for study success - in one app.
Get started for free
Beta decay is caused by the weak force, as are all reactions in which strangeness changes. Does this imply that the weak force can change quark flavor? Explain.
The \[{{\rm{\pi }}^{\rm{0}}}\]is its own antiparticle and decays in the following manner: \[{\pi ^0} \to \gamma + \gamma \]. What is the energy of each \[\gamma \]ray if the \[{\pi ^0}\] is at rest when it decays?
Repeat the previous problem for the decay mode
\({{\rm{\Omega }}^{\rm{ - }}} \to {{\rm{\Lambda }}^{\rm{0}}}{\rm{ + }}{{\rm{K}}^{\rm{ - }}}{\rm{. }}\)
Calculate the mass in \[{\rm{GeV/}}{{\rm{c}}^{\rm{2}}}\]of a virtual carrier particle that has a range limited to \[{\rm{1}}{{\rm{0}}^{{\rm{ - 30}}}}{\rm{\;m}}\]by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Such a particle might be involved in the unification of the strong and electroweak forces.
What is the wavelength of an \({\rm{50 - GeV}}\) electron, which is produced at SLAC? This provides an idea of the limit to the detail it can probe.
What do you think about this solution?
We value your feedback to improve our textbook solutions.
