electroweak theory

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

noun

Physics.

1. a gauge theory that unifies quantum electrodynamics with the theory of weak interactions.

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.

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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.

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

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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.

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The electroweak theory, linking electromagnetism and the weak interaction that controls nuclear decay, the theory that won Weinberg the Nobel prize alongside Sheldon Glashow and Abdus Salam, brought these two passions together.

Read more on The Guardian