Boson

Bosons are, in technical terms, subatomic particles that obey Bose-Einstein statistics. Put more simply, bosons are subatomic particles have integer spin. They can occupy the same star at the same time. For this reason, bosons are normally thought of as mediators of fundamental interactions, like the electromagnetic or strong nuclear interactions, or carriers of radiation. Bosons stand in contrast to fermions, which are believed to be the particles that make up ordinary matter and have half integer spin.

The Standard Model of particle physics describes several elementary bosons:

• the photon, the mediator of the electromagnetic interaction (abbreviated ),
• the gluon, mediator of the strong nuclear interaction (abbreviated g),
• the W^± boson, and
• the Z⁰ boson, both of which mediate the weak nuclear interaction

The Higgs boson is a particle that is predicted to exist by the Standard Model, and was first observed by teams at CERN in July 2012.

Gauge Bosons (W+, W- and Z⁰) are bosons that are responsible for the weak nuclear force, such as beta decay resulting from the flavour changing of quarks.