The Discovery of the W and Z Bosons at the CERN Proton- Antiproton Collider

Luigi Di Lella

doi:10.53941/hihep.2025.100008

Open Access

Review

The Discovery of the W and Z Bosons at the CERN Proton- Antiproton Collider

Luigi Di Lella

Author Information

Submitted: 5 Apr 2025 | Revised: 26 Jun 2025 | Accepted: 29 Jun 2025 | Published: 30 Jun 2025

Abstract

This article describes the scientific and technical achievements that led to the discovery of the weak intermediate vector bosons, W ^± and Z, from the original proposal to modify an existing high-energy proton accelerator into a proton-antiproton collider and its implementation at CERN, to the design, construction and operation of the detectors which provided the first evidence for the production and decay of these two fundamental particles.

Keywords

UA1 | UA2 | W and Z discovery

References

1.

Rubbia, C.; McIntyre, P.; Cline, D. In Proceedings of the International Neutrino Conference, Aachen, Germany, 8–12 June 1977; p. 683.

2.

Haidt, D. The discovery of neutral currents. Eur. Phys. J. C 2004, 34, 25.

3.

Hasert, F.J.; Faissner, H.; Krenz, W.; et al. Search for elastic muon-neutrino electron scattering. Phys. Lett. B 1973, 46, 121.

4.

Hasert, F.J.; Kabe, S.; Krenz, W.; et al. Observation of neutrino-like interactions without muon or electron in the gargamelle neutrino experiment. Phys. Lett. B 1973, 46, 138.

5.

van der Meer, S. Stochastic Damping of Betatron Oscillations in the ISR; CERN-ISR-PO 72-31; CERN: Geneva, Switzerland, 1972.

6.

Van der Meer, S. Stochastic cooling and the accumulation of antiprotons. Rev. Mod. Phys. 1985, 57, 689.

7.

Carron, G.; Herr, H.; Koziol, H.; et al. Stochastic cooling tests in ice. Phys. Lett. B 1978, 77, 353.

8.

Astbury, A. Calorimeter facilities. Phys. Scr. 1981, 23, 397.

9.

Arnison, G.; Astbury, A.; Aubert, B.; et al. Experimental observation of isolated large transverse energy electrons with associated missing energy at s = 540 GeV. Phys. Lett. B 1983, 122, 103.

10.

Banner, M.; Battiston, R.; Bloch, P.; et al. Observation of single isolated electrons of high transverse momentum in events with missing transverse energy at the CERN. Phys. Lett. B 1983, 122, 476.

11.

Arnison, G.T.; Astbury, A.; Aubert, B.; et al. Experimental observation of lepton pairs of invariant mass around 95 GeV/c2 at the CERN SPS collider. Phys. Lett. B 1983, 126, 398.

12.

Bagnaia, P.; Banner, M.; Battiston, R.; et al. Evidence for Z0 → e⁺ e^- at the CERN pp collider. Phys. Lett. B 1983, 129, 130.

13.

Albajar, C.; Albrow, M.G.; Allkofer, O.C.; et al. Studies of intermediate vector boson production and decay in UA1 at the CERN proton-antiproton collider. Z. Phys. C 1989, 44, 15.

14.

Albajar, C.; Albrow, M.G.; Allkofer, O.C.; et al. Events with large missing transverse energy at the cern collider: I.W→ τυ decay and test of τ µ e universality at Q² = mw² . Phys. Lett. B 1987, 185, 233.

15.

Ansari, R.; Bagnaia, P.; Banner, M.; et al. Measurement of the standard model parameters from a study of W and Z bosons. Phys. Lett. B 1987, 186, 440.

16.

Altarelli, G.; Ellis, R.K.; Greco, M.; et al. Vector boson production at colliders: A theoretical reappraisal. Nucl. Phys. B 1984, 246, 12.

17.

Alitti, J.; Ambrosini, G.; Ansari, R.; et al. An improved determination of the ratio of W and Z masses at the CERN pp collider. Phys. Lett. B 1992, 276, 354.

18.

Carter, J. In Proceedings of the Joint International Lepton-Photon Symposium and Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics, Geneva, Switzerland 25 July–1 August 1991; Volume 2, p. 3.

19.

Abe, F.; Amidei, D.; Apollinari, G.; et al. Measurement of the W-boson mass in 1.8-TeV p-p collisions. Phys. Rev. D 1991, 43, 2070.

20.

A˚ kesson, T.; Alitti, J.; Ansari, R.; et al. Search for top quark production at the CERN p-p collider. Z. Phys. C 1990, 46, 179.

21.

Albajar, C.; Albrow, M.G.; Allkofer, O.C.; et al. Search for new heavy quarks in proton-antiproton collisions at √s = 0.63 TeV. Z. Phys. C 1990, 48, 1;

22.

Abe, F.; Amidei, D.; Apollinari, G.; et al. Search for the top quark in the reaction p-p →electron+jets at √s = 1.8 TeV. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1990, 64, 142.

23.

Veltman, M. Limit on Mass Differences in the Weinberg Model. Nucl. Phys. B 1977, 123, 89.

24.

Abe, F.; Albrow, M.G.; Amendolia, S.R.; et al. Evidence for top quark production in p-p collisions at √s = 1.8 TeV. Phys. Rev. D 1994, 50, 2966.

25.

Navas, S.; Amsler, C.; Gutsche, T.; et al. Review of Particle Physics. Phys. Rev. D 2024, 110, 030001.

Share this article:

Download PDF

DOI

10.53941/hihep.2025.100008

Issue

Volume 1, Issue 1

How to Cite

Di Lella, L. (2025). The Discovery of the W and Z Bosons at the CERN Proton- Antiproton Collider. Highlights in High-Energy Physics, 1(1), 8. https://doi.org/10.53941/hihep.2025.100008

RIS

BibTex

Copyright & License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.