BRAINCAKEForce Carriers
The photon and W bosons are force carriers because they are exchanged when the electromagnetic and weak nuclear force act. The pion is the particle exchanged when the strong nuclear force acts.
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Key terms in this lesson
- Strong nuclear force
- The short-range attractive force between nucleons that overcomes the electrostatic repulsion between protons and holds the nucleus together, becoming repulsive at very short separations.
- Photon
- A discrete packet, or quantum, of electromagnetic energy.
- Electromagnetic force
- The force between two charged objects, resulting from the exchange of virtual photons.
- Weak nuclear force
- The fundamental interaction responsible for beta decay, in which particles interact through the exchange of W bosons.
- W boson
- The exchange particle for the weak interaction; it may be positively charged (W+) or negatively charged (W-) and, unlike the photon, has a non-zero rest mass.
More in Particles and Radiation
- Pair Production
- The Discovery of the Positron
- The Electromagnetic Force
- Feynman Diagrams
- The Weak Nuclear Force
- The W Boson
- Beta Decay
- Electron Capture
All 22 lessons in Particles and Radiation · All AQA AS-level Physics topics