Skipping ahead to the 1980's, the virtual quanta mediating the
weak interaction (the force next weakest to the
gravitational force) have only recently
been identified directly
in immense experiments at the biggest accelerators.
These are the 
and 
`` intermediate vector bosons'' whose masses are shown in
Table 1.3.2.
What can you conclude about the range of the weak interaction?
[This would make a great exam question!]
Table:
The intermediary particles that convey various forces
between other elementary particles.
In a unification of the weak and electromagnetic
interactions that has won acclaim for numerous theorists over the
past two decades or so, the 
and the W and Z
bosons have been shown to be merely different aspects of the
same `` electroweak'' force, despite their gross
dissimilarities in mass and lifetime.