X and Y bosons


In particle physics, the X and Y bosons are hypothetical elementary particles analogous to the W and Z bosons, but corresponding to a new type of force predicted by the Georgi–Glashow model, a grand unified theory.

Details

The X and Y bosons couple quarks to leptons, allowing violation of the conservation of baryon number, and thus permitting proton decay.
An X boson would have the following decay modes:
where the two decay products in each process have opposite chirality, is an up quark, is a down antiquark and is a positron.
A Y boson would have the following decay modes:
where the first decay product in each process has left-handed chirality and the second has right-handed chirality and is an electron antineutrino. Similar decay products exist for the other quark-lepton generations.
In these reactions, neither the lepton number nor the baryon number is conserved, but B−L| is. Different branching ratios between the X boson and its antiparticle would explain baryogenesis. For instance, if an +/− pair is created out of energy, and they follow the two branches described above: + → +, − → + ; re-grouping the result + = + shows it to be a hydrogen atom.

Origin

The X± and Y± bosons are defined respectively as the six and the six components of the final two terms of the adjoint 24 representation of SU as it transforms under the standard model's group:
Thus, the positively-charged X and Y carry anti-color charges, while the negatively-charged X and Y carry normal color charges, and the signs of the Y bosons' weak isospins are always opposite the signs of their electric charges. In terms of their action on, X bosons rotate between a color index and the weak isospin-up index, while Y bosons rotate between a color index and the weak isospin-down index.