Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Unified yes, renormalised maybe

Abstract

Several recent reports1–3 have suggested that recent neutrino and polarised electron scattering experiments are not particular tests of the ‘standard theory’ of weak interactions, but only establish the strength and form of the weak neutral current appearing in the effective weak lagrangian along with the classical charged-current (J±) interactions. Whether or not weak vector mesons exist, the current experiments confirm the existence of an effective lagrangian (2) containing a weak neutral current (1) with the one parameter sin2θw. This letter shows that this already establishes some unification of electron and weak interactions, so that the question is no longer “Is unification really true?”3, but rather “Is the theory SU2 × U1 symmetric and renormalisable?” It also shows that, although weak charged currents must show structure1 below 160 GeV, the weak neutral currents can be structureless, that is mz = ∞ is compatible with the observed current (1).

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Bjorken, J. D. Phys. Rev. D19, 335–346 (1979).

    ADS  MathSciNet  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Hung, P. Q., & Sakurai, D. J. Nucl. Phys. B143, 81–113 (1978).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Dombey, N. Nature 279, 675–677 (1979).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Glashow, S. Nucl. Phys. 22, 579–588 (1961).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Bludman, S. A. Nuovo Cimento, Ser. 10 IX, 433–445 (1958).

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  6. Veltman, M. Proc. VIth Intl. Symp. on Electron and Photon Interactions at High Energies (North -Holland, Amsterdam, 1974).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Sakurai, J. J. Current Trends in the Theory of Fields (A.I.P. Proc. No. 48, 1978); III Int. Symp. on High Energy Physics with Polarized Beams and Polarized Targets (A.I.P. Proc., 1978).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Glashow, S. L., Iliopoulos, J. & Maiani, L. Phys. Rev. D2, 1285 (1970).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. 't Hooft, G. Nucl. Phys. B33, 173–199 (1971); B35, 167–188 (1971).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Lee, B. W. & Zinn Justin, J. Phys. Rev. D5, 3121–3137, 3137–3155; 3155–3160 (1972).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. ' t Hooft, G. & Veltman, M. Nucl. Phys. B44, 189–213 (1972).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Gell-Mann, M. Proc. Int. Conf. on High Energy Physics, Rochester (1960).

  13. Bludman, S. A. & Cheng, W. K. Phys. Rev. B136, 1787–1790 (1964).

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  14. Bludman, S. A. phys. Rev. 100, 372–375 (1955).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Weinberg, S. Phys. Rev. Lett. 19, 1264–1266 (1967).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Salam, S. Elementary Particle Theory (ed. Svartholm, N.) (Almquist and Wiksells, Stockholm, 1968).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Weinberg, S. Phys. Rev. Lett. 27, 1688–1691 (1971).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Bell, J. S. Nucl. Phys. B60, 427–436 (1973).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Llewellyn Smith, C. H. Phys. Lett. 46 B, 233–236 (1973).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Cornwell, J.M., Levin, D. & Tiktopoulos, G. Phys Rev. Lett. 30, 1268–1270 (1973).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bludman, S. Unified yes, renormalised maybe. Nature 282, 280–281 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/282280a0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/282280a0

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing