electroweak theory

[ ih-lek-troh-week theer-ee ]

noun

, Physics.

1. a gauge theory that unifies quantum electrodynamics with the theory of weak interactions. Compare intermediate vector boson.

Word History and Origins

Origin of electroweak theory¹

First recorded in 1975–80; electro- + weak; alternative names after U.S. physicist Steven Weinberg (1933–2021) and Pakistani physicist Abdus Salam (1926–96)

Example Sentences

During a long career spent in the exploration of the most basic problems of physics and cosmology, he won lasting renown as a creator of an “electroweak” theory that unifies electromagnetism and the “weak” force that operates on the subatomic scale and is one of the four forces that govern the universe.

From Washington Post

The electroweak theory lies at the core of what physicists know as the Standard Model, a framework that guides physics in accounting for all the particles from which the world is made, and for how they influence one another.

From Washington Post

But we’re far from being able to verify the theory—much further than we were from verifying the electroweak theory 40 years ago.

From Scientific American

One hundred years later electromagnetism was unified with the weak nuclear force governing radioactivity, in what physicists call the electroweak theory.

From Scientific American

Dr. Glashow and his friends would stash wine bottles in a grandfather clock and then come back and stay up all night drinking the wine and talking about the electroweak theory while Dr. Higgs was in bed.

From New York Times