# Electroweak Interaction

In particle physics, the **electroweak interaction** is the unified description of two of the four known fundamental interactions of nature: electromagnetism and the weak interaction. Although these two forces appear very different at everyday low energies, the theory models them as two different aspects of the same force. Above the unification energy, on the order of 100 GeV, they would merge into a single **electroweak force**. Thus, if the universe is hot enough (approximately 1015 K, a temperature exceeded until shortly after the Big Bang), then the electromagnetic force and weak force merge into a combined electroweak force. During the electroweak epoch, the electroweak force separated from the strong force. During the quark epoch, the electroweak force split into the electromagnetic and weak force.

## https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroweak_interaction

Above the unification energy, on the order of 246 GeV,[a] they would merge into a single force. 

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/courses-images-archive-read-only/wp-content/uploads/sites/222/2014/12/20112724/Figure_34_06_04.jpg
from [GUTs: The Unification of Forces](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/physics/chapter/33-6-guts-the-unification-of-forces/)


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- QFD is short-ranged and weaker dimensionlessly than QED

[The weak interaction has a coupling constant (an indicator of how frequently interactions occur) between 10−7 and 10−6, compared to the electromagnetic coupling constant of about 10−2 and the strong interaction's coupling constant of 1; consequently the weak interaction is 'weak' in terms of intensity.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weak_interaction)

- QFD and QCD have about the same interaction range in space, although [W/Z-bosons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W_and_Z_bosons) are massive while [gluon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluon) is massless formally
[The effective range of the weak force is limited to subatomic distances, and is less than the diameter of a proton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weak_interaction)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton#:~:text=Because%20protons%20are%20not%20fundamental,%C3%9710%E2%88%9215%20m).
but compare with Leggett's remarks in "Problems of physics"
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- QFD at higher (deeper) energies than QED - not well-defined point - QFD&QED acting/existing simultaneously

[.. that the W+, W−, and Z0 bosons actually have relatively large masses of around 80 GeV/c2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_mechanism)
[electron mass ... about 0.5110 MeV](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_mass)


# Parents

* Particle Physics