Some Properties of the Salam–Weinberg Theory of Leptons

Abstract

One major success of the standard model is the accurate prediction of the masses of the intermediate bosons, starting from the operator structure of the neutral current. This made a specific experimental search for these particles possible, to which end it is important to know the possible creation and decay mechanisms. We see immediately that in an electron–positron storage ring it is considerably easier to produce the neutral Z⁰ bosons than the charged W^± bosons. In the case of Z⁰, simple pair annihilation suffices, whereas charged bosons can only be produced in higher-order processes. In particular, decays involving a neutrino are experimentally characteristic, because a large fraction of the energy present in the scattering is transferred to the neutrino and is therefore not seen in the detectors.