Boson

In quantum mechanics, a boson (/ˈboʊsɒn/, /ˈboʊzɒn/) is a particle that follows Bose–Einstein statistics. Bosons make up one of the two classes of particles, the other being fermions. The name boson was coined by Paul Dirac to commemorate the contribution of Indian physicist and professor of physics at University of Calcutta and at University of Dhaka, Satyendra Nath Bose in developing, with Albert Einstein, Bose–Einstein statistics—which theorizes the characteristics of elementary particles. Examples of bosons include fundamental particles such as photons, gluons, and W and Z bosons (the four force-carrying gauge bosons of the Standard Model), the recently discovered Higgs boson, and the hypothetical graviton of quantum gravity. Some composite particles are also bosons, such as mesons and stable nuclei of even mass number such as deuterium (with one proton and one neutron, atomic mass number = 2), helium-4, or lead-208; as well as some quasiparticles (e.g. Cooper pairs, plasmons, and phonons).:130 An important characteristic of bosons is that their statistics do not restrict the number of them that occupy the same quantum state. This property is exemplified by helium-4 when it is cooled to become a superfluid. Unlike bosons, two identical fermions cannot occupy the same quantum space. Whereas the elementary particles that make up matter (i.e. leptons and quarks) are fermions, the elementary bosons are force carriers that function as the 'glue' holding matter together. This property holds for all particles with integer spin (s = 0, 1, 2, etc.) as a consequence of the spin–statistics theorem.When a gas of Bose particles is cooled down to temperatures very close to absolute zero, then the kinetic energy of the particles decreases to a negligible amount, and they condense into the lowest energy level state. This state is called a Bose–Einstein condensate. This property is also the explanation for superfluidity. Bosons may be either elementary, like photons, or composite, like mesons. While most bosons are composite particles, in the Standard Model of Particle Physics there are five bosons which are elementary: There may be a sixth tensor boson (spin=2), the graviton (G), that would be the force-carrier for gravity. It remains a hypothetical elementary particle since all attempts so far to incorporate gravitation into the Standard Model have failed. If the graviton does exist, it must be a boson, and could conceivably be a gauge boson. Composite bosons, such as helium nuclei, are important in superfluidity and other applications of Bose–Einstein condensates. Bosons differ from fermions, which obey Fermi–Dirac statistics. Two or more identical fermions cannot occupy the same quantum state (see Pauli exclusion principle), and they are sometimes said to be the constituents of ordinary 'rigid' matter. Unlike those, instances of a boson have no quantum-mechanical obstruction to occupy the same state. Bosons are often (although not necessarily) force carrier particles, including composite bosons such as mesons. Force carriers are also said to be the particles that transmit interactions, or the constituents of radiation.