W and Z particles, elementary particles that mediate, or carry, the fundamental force associated with weak interactions. The discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland...

Prickly ash, name for two deciduous shrubs or small trees (Zanthoxylum americanum and Z. clava-herculis) of the family Rutaceae (rue family). They are native to E North America and have prickl...

Weak interactions, actions between elementary particles mediated, or carried, by W and Z particles and that are responsible for nuclear decay. Weak interactions are one of four fundamental int...

Ohm's law [for G. S. Ohm], law stating that the electric current i flowing through a given resistance r is equal to the applied voltage v divided by the resistance, or i=v/r. For general appli...

Bose-Einstein statistics, class of statistics that applies to elementary particles called bosons, which include the photon, pion, and the W and Z particles. Bosons have integral values of the ...

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Number, entity describing the magnitude or position of a mathematical object or extensions of these concepts. Cardinal numbers describe the size of a collection of objects; two such collection...

Complex variable analysis, branch of mathematics that deals with the calculus of functions of a complex variable, i.e., a variable of the form z=x+iy, where x and y are real and i=-1 (see numb...

Van der Meer, Simon, 1925–, Dutch physical engineer. He spent his career at CERN, where he did his most important work with Carlo Rubbia. They discovered the subatomic particles W and Z, which...

Rubbia, Carlo, 1934–, Italian physicist, Ph.D. Univ. of Pisa, 1957. A professor of physics at the Univ. of Rome and later at Harvard, Rubbia did his most important work with Simon van der Meer...