INTERMEDIATE BOSONS AND ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD

Possible symmetries between the (hypothetical) charged intermediate-boson field Wν± and the derivative of the electromagnetic field aFμνaxν are investigated. We assume that (a) the total electromagnetic current operator Iνγ=e0-1(aFμνaxν) is proportional to a neutral member Wν0 of the intermediate-boson fields, (b) all hadron mass differences between different members of the same isospin multiplet consist of finite O(e2) terms but no O(f2) terms, and (c) all known leptonic, semileptonic, and ΔSa0 nonleptonic weak processes are transmitted by a single Wν± field, where f, e, and e0 are, respectively, the semiweak coupling constant, the renormalized charge, and the unrenormalized charge. The simplest model compatible with (a), (b), and (c) is found to be one consisting of six intermediate bosons, which may be regarded as forming an SU3 triplet and its Hermitian conjugate. Assumption (a) also implies finite radiative corrections for other processes such as weak decays, charge renormalization, etc. The unrenormalized charge e0 is shown to be finite, bounded by the inequality 1a(e0e)a2. A lower limit of f2 is established. Neglecting higher-order corrections, one finds this lower limit of f2 to be 43e2sec2θ and, in this limit, e0=2e and mWmN≅α-1, where α is the fine structure constant, mW and mN are, respectively, the W± mass and the nucleon mass, and θ is the Cabibbo angle. The same model can also lead, in a reasonably natural way, to CP nonconservation. © 1968 The American Physical Society.