The ABC Preon Model. The W and Z. A and B masses. First Free Preons., page 1

This is the ninth thread in the series on the ABC Preon Model. Links to earlier threads will appear in the comment below.

With weak decays now understood (see my previous thread), it is time to turn to the experimental record given by high energy physics experiments. The first class of high energy physics experiments to discuss are proton antiproton collision experiments. Such experiments were done in the European laboratory CERN in 1983 and they led to the discovery of the W and Z particles of the standard model. Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer received Nobel prizes for their important contributions to these discoveries. However, was it really a W and Z that were found? Or can these monumental discoveries have a different explanation?

In a proton antiproton collider, a beam of protons is accelerated to nearly the speed of light, and a beam of antiprotons is also accelerated to nearly the speed of light. The beams are sent in opposing directions and made to collide. Particles formed by the collision are then studied in large detectors.

The picture above shows a proton antiproton collision as understood from the ABC Preon Model. A proton is shown on the left, and an antiproton is shown in the center. From our earlier post on Modeling the Hadrons we recall that a proton is made of a central C particle, two A's and a B, while the antiproton is the antimatter counterpart of the proton. After colliding, these particles can create many different combinations of particles.

As a first possible outcome, let's look at what is known as a W Event:

One clear possibility for a proton antiproton collision is for it to result in what is shown above, where a B preon gets knocked off of a proton and an anti-A preon gets knocked off of an antiproton. Next, a pair of neutrinos can form out of the vacuum, with one going to bind the B and anti-A into a massive lepton, and the other neutrino being free. (Massive leptons are a B bound to an anti-A by a neutrino, see The ABC Preon Model. Modeling the Massive Leptons. for more details.)

Note that vacuum creation of particle anti-particle pairs is a very frequent occurance in high energy physics experiments. It happens all the time. And so the important point here is that we can readily see how proton antiproton collisions can result in a situation where we have a massive lepton and a neutrino formed. This, along with the remaining shower of particles caused by the other proton and antiproton fragments that are left over, is what has been discovered as evidence of the W particle in proton antiproton colliders.

The W particle mass times the speed of light squared has been measured to be about 80.4 GeV. Since in the ABC Preon Model this phenomena is caused by the freeing of an A and a B preon, this allows us to arrive at the relation that the mass of the A particle plus the mass of the B particle is 80.4 GeV/c^2.

Next, let's look at what is known as a Z Event:

A second possible outcome of a proton antiproton collision is shown above. In this case, we note that it is possible for an A particle to be knocked off of a proton and an anti-A to be knocked off of an antiproton. In this case, a B anti-B pair and a pair of neutrinos can be formed from the vacuum. The B and one neutrino will bind with the anti-A to form a massive lepton, while the anti-B and the other neutrino will bind with the A particle to form a massive anti-lepton. This is exactly one of the signatures found for the Z particle in high energy physics experiments. (The Z can also form quark anti-quark pairs via formation of C anti-C preon pairs and additional neutrinos.)

The Z particle mass times the speed of light squared has been measured to be about 91.2 GeV. Since in the ABC Preon Model this phenomena is caused by the freeing of an A and an anti-A preon, this allows us to arrive at the relation that twice the mass of the A preon is 91.2 GeV/c^2. (The anti-preons masses are assumed to be the same as the mass of their corresponding preon.) Hence, the mass of the A preon is determined to be 45.6 GeV/c^2, and from our relationship derived above concerning "W Events" we can determine that the mass of the B preon is 34.8 GeV/c^2.

And now we see that what has been thought of as the W and Z discoveries are something quite different as understood from the ABC Preon Model. From the understanding of the ABC Preon Model, what were known as W events and Z events were actually the first experimental discovery of free preons!