How does particle physics explain fundamental forces?
1 Answer
The fundamental interactions in nature are explained in terms of force carrier particles or gauge bosons which carry a particular type of fundamental interaction.
Explanation:
The four fundamental interactions in nature are gravity, EM force, and the less familiar weak and strong nuclear interactions.
Gauge bosons are mass less particles with integer spin which obey the Bose-Einstein statistics.
The gauge bosons carry the fundamental interactions.
For instance, the first ever discovered gauge boson was the photon which carries the EM interaction. Photons are everywhere within an electromagnetic field and as we might expect naturally, in an electromagnetic wave such as light.
Other than that, the other particle gluon is discovered and carries the strong nuclear interaction which acts only within the atomic nucleus. Strong interaction is in fact several times stronger than the EM interaction and "glues" protons and neutrons within the atomic nucleus.
The weak interaction, which is responsible for the formation of neutrinos and antineutrinos is carried by the less familiar W and Z bosons which have been discovered as well.
The most familiar of all the four, gravity is thought to be carried by a particle called the graviton although no such particle has been discovered so far.
The existence of gravitons to explain gravitation fields and gravitational waves is now a chief area of active research.
The discovery of gravitons would essentially establish symmetry between all four fundamental interactions in nature.
